Architect of Dreams
by Naiwrath
Summary: Our hero Lin Feng transcends his own world and lands up in Narutoverse. He tries to gain as much power from the world as possible so that he can impact the barriers of a higher tier world. As he goes about snatching stuff and occasionally creating beautiful buildings... he's from the Grand Architecture Sect after all... he pisses off the locals who rise spiritedly in revolt.
1. Chapter 1

Lin Feng sat on a snowy summit inspiring and expiring the essence of the world.

His breaths slowed down and sped up in a profound rhythm that echoed with the principles governing the plane.

As night and day took turns, his body seemed to integrate further and further into nature till he was indistinguishable from it.

Days passed, weeks passed, as did months and then years as his body grew more and more incorporeal.

One fateful day, when all that was left of him was a transparent outline, with the incisive sound of shattering glass, space started to crack around him.

The fissures grew in numbers and depth revealing glimpses of the dark void beyond.

It was then that he opened his eyes, his pupil and sclera dyed the colour of the void.

For a moment that stretched into eternity, the world froze as he phased into the void, leaving a gaping wound in the fabric of reality.

Noiselessly, the rent imploded, taking a huge chunk of the mountain with it.

The surrounding air rushed in to the vacuum, giving rise to strong gales that uprooted trees and blew loose soil into the crater.

Ripples from the implosion spread across the world, letting all strong enough to perceive it know that one of their ranks had stepped into the legendary Shattered Void realm.

The Grand Architectural Sect was especially joyous as it was their hegemon Lin Feng who had transcended the world.

…

In the infinite darkness of the Void, protected from its encroachment by a thin layer of his newly developed Void Force, Lin Feng floated in search of another world to explore.

The Grand Cultivation Continent was a mid-level plane of existence and as such, could not support Shattered Void Cultivators.

Thus, ascending inevitably meant bidding goodbye to one's homeland.

In the ten years he had spent touring the world, preparing for his breakthrough, he had put down his attachment to the soil which had birthed him.

In the last moments of his breakthrough, he had injected the majority of his nascent Void Force into the world to help it expand, resolving the last of his Karma.

So, he floated in the infinite darkness, searching for his new home.

…

A rip in the fabric of reality opened over a vast desert and out of it tumbled a naked man.

Large swathes of his skin had been corroded by something and sloughed off, leaving him in an extremely pitiful state.

As he flopped onto a sand dune, unmoving, the spatial crack winked out of existence.

The space around the body seemed to shimmer and warp as slowly, it sank into the sand.

After an hour, there were no traces of his presence.

…

Shin stealthily traversed the dunes as he kept tabs on the army of the tree-huggers with his sensory jutsu.

Today's offensive was to be led by Jiraiya, his sagacious frogginess himself. Thus, the fourth Kazekage had prepared a nasty surprise for them.

He chuckled inwardly as he imagined the looks on their faces when they realized that they would have to fight the one-tails in the desert.

A wave of chakra rife with malice and oppression washed over him and he shuddered. It had begun.

Shin activated his sensory jutsu. The wind around him enlivening as it carried tidings from the battlefield to him.

It was a massacre. While Jiraiya fought valiantly against the tailed beast, containing its rampage, Chiyo and her army of puppets laid into the Konoha army, cutting through them like a knife through butter.

Suddenly, the sand beside his feet trembled and a desiccated arm stretched out from it.

Startled, the shinobi leapt backwards to take some distance from the threat.

Another arm, followed by a head, a torso and then a pair of legs slowly emerged from the sand.

The state of the body was horrifying. Large amounts of skin had peeled off revealing the quivering muscle underneath.

An eyelid and a chunk of its right cheek was missing revealing the interior of its mouth which was leaked sand through the gap.

Only patches of its hair were left.

Despite being a toughened shinobi of the sand who had roamed the battlefield for much of his young life, Shin found it hard to keep his bile down.

Reflexively, he threw a kunai at the abomination.

The creature did not react as the sharpened piece of metal flew towards it.

Just as he ridiculed himself for his irrational fear of a weak opponent, Shin's eyes widened in surprise.

The knife had stopped inches from the creature upon colliding with a shimmering field of force. It slowly distorted as it was twisted by the field into a metallic pretzel.

With a soft 'thump', the unrecognizable lump of metal dropped on the ground.

The creature turned its attention to him and he looked into its eyes.

They were a solid black, the darkness of the Void given form.

Then, he knew no more.

…

Absorbing the essence of the warrior… no shinobi, as they were called here, helped him repair some of the damage caused by his extended stay in the Void.

The memories he got from his soul told him where he was and what was going on in this realm.

Expanding his senses and attuning them to the frequency of this world's energy, he could perceive every detail of what was going on for miles around him.

Not too far away, a battle was going on. One of many in the course of the Third Shinobi World War.

The key figures were a large sentient mass of world vitality… although the locals were under the misconception that it was made of chakra, the local equivalent of internal energy, facing off against a man fused with two toads who were helping him synchronize with the vitality of the world, albeit extremely crudely, causing him to partially turn into a toad.

Taking a deep breath, he could feel the strength of this world.

It was a low rank plane, not even strong enough to reject his entry into it from the void.

Although a lot of the reasons for his easy entry came from him cutting his Karma with his home world, leaving him unaffiliated.

A move which had also weakened him enough that he had almost died in the Void.

Also, it seemed that someone from a mid-rank plane had already visited this world and terra formed it once in order to harvest its strength and expand themselves so that they could impact the barrier of a high rank world.

He looked up at the moon. It seemed that they had failed.

It would be better to be more discreet.

But, for now, discretion could wait. He needed his first energy supplement in order to heal from his injuries and reach a suitable power level to move unhindered in this plane.

It seemed an opportunity was right in front of him.

Calling upon the last of his Void Force, and mixing it with the world vitality around him, he pinched his fingers in a law seal.

The space around him in a ten-metre radius converged into his palm and formed a small transparent globe.

The wind howled as it rushed in to take its place.

Lin Feng stepped forward, ignoring the intervening distance and appeared right behind the rampaging tailed beast and slammed the orb into its back.

For a moment, the world lost its colour as with a desperate howl, the soul of the tailed beast was extracted and locked into the spatial prison.

Its gigantic sand body collapsed revealing a monk in its forehead. The former host of the beast twitched and died in his sleep as the vast chakra was ripped from his body.

The sounds of battle stilled as everyone focused their attention on the walking corpse which had just sealed a tailed beast.

Both armies backed off from him as they maintained the highest state of alert.

Oblivious to their vision, Lin Feng swallowed the orb which now had golden soul smoke floating in it.

For a moment nothing happened and the only sounds except for the howling of the desert winds were the nervous gulps of the shinobi as they tried to assess what monster they would have to face.

Due to his impetuous nature and stemming from a confidence in his strength, Jiraiya jumped down from a large toad and made his way towards him.

He was on high alert as even at such close proximity, his sage mode could not detect the walking corpse. It was as if there was a gap in the very world.

Before he could make it halfway, an extremely strong pressure exploded out of the creature. Its wounds healed at a pace visible to the naked eye. Skin and hair regenerated leaving behind an extremely handsome man in the prime of his youth.

The changes didn't stop there. His hair changed from black to a dull gold and blue patterns similar to the ones on the tailed beast proliferated all over his naked form.

And when he opened his eyes, in the canvas of darkness, was a golden iris with a diamond shaped pupil. The same eyes that had belonged to the tailed beast.

The man smiled and the desert seemed to smile along with him.

Lin Feng took a step back, merging into the world. His parting words seemed to come from every grain of sand in the desert.

"We shall meet again."

…

After an extended period of silence, Jiraiya burst out with the question that had been plaguing everyone's mind.

"What the fuck did he just say?"

It seems that in his hurry to make a dramatic exit, our hero had forgotten that to the natives, his mother tongue was a bunch of gibberish.

Personally, I'd say it was the difference in the number of vowels.


	2. Chapter 2

Lin Feng's form materialized in the desert.

Due to his being a rookie in the teleportation business, he had no control of his destination, just a vague idea of the distance and direction.

Thus, as soon as he appeared, he fused with the world vitality and scanned his surroundings for signs of ninja presence.

Finding none, he let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

The memories he had just gleaned from assimilating the tailed beast's soul had left him jittery.

What had he just seen? Grand Dao fragments!

Not just any fragment, mind you. An upper-mortal tier one with six whole constituent principles!

That was two whole realms above his current realm.

When he had severed his Karma, the consciousness of his home world had rewarded him with some knowledge about further realms of cultivation.

A graduating present if you will.

Those who didn't sever Karma, in order to safeguard themselves better in the Void by retaining their nascent Void Force during Ascension, lacked a future direction.

Also, their Karma shackles would identify them as ingrates to the consciousness of any plane they tried to gain entry into, triggering an intense revolt if they tried to force themselves in.

He mentally patted himself in the back once again for being so wise.

According to the data, the realms were Shattered Void, followed by Grasping Principles and then Dao Seeking realm.

Grasping Principles involved using Void Force to sense the principles that underlie the fabric of reality and then weaving said principles into one's very being, gaining a small measure of control over it.

Dao Seeking involved arranging a minimum of three principles within a framework of one's understanding of the World and creating a personalized version of the fundamental laws that support the normal revolution of the cosmos.

For example, the principle of thermal equilibrium, the principle of energy conservation, the principle of entropy, and the principle of calibration could be arranged into the lower-mortal tier Grand Dao of Thermodynamics.

The more principles involved, the stronger was the Grand Dao.

Daos with three principles were Earth tier, while those with four, five and six were lower, middle and upper Mortal tier respectively.

Finally, seven, eight and nine principle Daos were lower, middle and upper Divine tier respectively.

Thus, imagine his surprise when an old dude with funky eyes containing fragments of the Grand Dao of Samsara had appeared in the memories of the one-tails, Shukaku.

The old dude had sealed the energy of something known as the ten-tails inside him while the body of the beast was stuck on the moon.

Predicting his imminent death, the man had split the energy nine ways. Shukaku being the weakest of the nine parts.

After the man's death, Shukaku had roamed the desert, eventually running upon shinobi who had sealed it into themselves to create a slaughtering machine.

Jinchuuriki, they called it. 'The power of human sacrifice', how poetic.

Lin Feng shook his head. Humans loved sacrifice as long as they weren't the ones doing the sacrificing.

He speculated that the ten-tails was an agglomeration of the world's vitality while the nine tailed beasts were aspects of it.

Based on how expansive these aspects were, the power of the beasts varied.

For example, the three-tails which represented fresh water and the eight-tails representing sea water had power in the same proportion as the amount their aspects constituted of the world.

Thus, it was logical for the nine-tails, representing the entirety of the spiritual portion of the world, to be the strongest of them all.

Then the question arose. What was the body of the ten-tails?

He had felt signs of terra forming when he had initially entered the world. At that time, he had thought that the one who had done it was a Shattered Void visitor from a mid-level plane like him.

Now, knowing what he did, he felt that the matter wasn't simple.

Lin Feng relaxed his mind and began to commune with the world will.

The night gave way to day, the harsh sun heating the sand to unendurable temperatures.

When it reached the zenith causing the harsh sunlight to glint off his golden hair, his eyes snapped open.

The Will of the World was extremely immature, barely a millennium old.

Comparing the time of Shukaku's birth, he gained confidence in his theory that the world vitality as well as the former version of the Will had been converted into the ten-tails using some artefact.

The old dude, who had the pretentious moniker of Sage of the Six Paths was obviously not the one who had come from a higher plane.

His shoddy workmanship in the creation of the tailed-beasts was enough to show that the Grand Dao fragments within his eyes were not cultivated by him personally.

This meant that whoever the Grand Dao belonged to was either missing or dead. Both outcomes were favourable for him.

The pressure on him immediately reduced and he laughed out loud, the sand coming alive with his mirth.

Without the threat of a Dao Seeking expert breathing down his neck, he could go about things with a free hand.

It was time to take over a hidden village, cultivator style.

He vanished and the tendrils of sand that had been orbiting him collapsed lifelessly.


	3. Chapter 3

Cresting a dune, the circular wall that ensconced Sunagakure came into view of the weary sand shinobi.

Chiyo breathed out a sigh of relief at finding the village unscathed.

Last night when she had looked into the creature's eyes just before it had vanished, she had seen its pupils mutate into ones that resembled the tailed-beast's.

Whatever that creature was, it had been conceited enough to take on a tailed-beast without a proper seal and had paid the ultimate price.

It wasn't the creature she was worried about, it was the beast now occupying it.

Freed after centuries of subjugation, she believed that a disaster was imminent for the hidden sand.

Curse that perverted toad lover. If not for him, she would already be within the walls, participating in the efforts to shore up their defences before the inevitable attack.

She turned around to urge the rest of her squad only to find them gaping at the sky.

Following their gaze, she squinted against the sun to pick out a black dot in the upper air.

…

The perpetual sandstorms that acted like a natural barrier for the village slowly stilled as a dreadful pressure proliferated.

Tendrils of sand began to gather to the dot. They grew in number and thickness and soon it seemed as though they were in a forest of sand.

The dot grew until its shape became clear to her enhanced senses.

A cauldron. A tripod cauldron made of tens of tons of sand. A cauldron that enlarged every second.

No words were spoken and none were needed.

A golden shimmer covered the entirety of the village, dazzling under the noon sun. the fourth Kazekage had made his move.

Every capable shinobi released their strongest defensive techniques.

The sand ninja being mostly affined to wind, released a community technique that clad the entire village in swirling currents of air, blurring its outline from outside.

Yet, the cauldron grew as did its shadow, slowly covering more of the village with every passing moment.

Those under its cover shivered, some panicked and ran, some knelt and prayed while some found courage they didn't know they had and helped others escape.

Yet, it grew. Slowly. Inexorably.

A hundred puppets suddenly emerged around the village walls and sped towards various positions.

Upon reaching them, they spread out their arms and legs in the form a star. Out of each appendage emerged a chakra string connecting them to their fellows.

Soon, the entire village was covered with a pentagonal grid with a puppet at each node.

Seals shone on each puppet's chest, echoing with similar seals on the boundary wall, and a membrane of light filled in the grid, completing the barrier.

"Don't underestimate us!" Chiyo screamed in challenge at the monster in human form.

Drawing confidence from her, the entirety of the sand shinobi rallied their morale. Screaming, they poured their chakra into the barriers.

" **HUMPH!** "

The entire desert seemed to tremble at the contemptuous interjection.

" **THIS LIN GIVES YOU TWO OPPORTUNITIES. SURRENDER OR DIE!** "

The sand responded with a fiercer war cry while Rasa shot a hail of golden bullets at him.

Smirking, Lin Feng just pointed at the protected village. The cauldron which was the size of a small hill by now began to descend.

Most of the golden bullets were blocked by the cauldron and the ones that did hit were twisted into pretzels by his spatial barrier.

The cauldron began to speed up, the friction with the air heating it and chipping away at the uneven edges.

The speeding cauldron smashed into the puppetry barrier. For a moment, it held, before, with a sound like glass breaking, the barrier shattered, destroying most of the puppets due to the backlash.

Next was the barrier of wind, which managed to slow it down a little.

With a low roar, the golden sand under Rasa's command gathered into two gigantic arms that cradled the errant cauldron.

With a shockwave, that eradicated the community wind barrier, the two colossal techniques collided.

The sound of metal groaning reverberated throughout the village as the cauldron finally lost its momentum and integrity, collapsing into a pile of sand and trickling out of the seams of the distorted golden fingers.

Every sand shinobi cheered loudly and embraced each other as they revelled in the feeling of being a survivor of a disaster.

" **IT WAS TRULY AN IMPRESSIVE DISPLAY. BUT, WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT THE SECOND ONE?** "

Everyone froze mid-jubilation as the world darkened when Lin Feng teleported another cauldron he had been secretly making to the air above the village.

He stood on a floating patch of sand as he observed the reactions of the shinobi.

A few unable to control their trembling collapsed onto the ground. Some broke under the stress and began laughing hysterically. The leaders clenched their teeth and tried to minimize the losses.

Rasa howled defiantly and the golden palms merged into a larger fist that collided with the hurtling cauldron.

The ensuing screech of metal against stone ruptured the eardrums of those close at hand while those far away suffered from tinnitus.

All that was left of the area was a crater with a smoking, crumbling lump of sand, resting on the twisted and slightly molten remnants of the Kazekage's arm of gold.

At the edge of the crater, lay the unconscious form of Rasa, uninjured except for a nasty concussion from overstraining his technique.

In a flash, Lin Feng was beside him, lifting him up by one arm.

" **SURRENDER OR DEATH. YOUR LEADER HAS BEEN DEFEATED AND THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE. IN THESE TUMULTOUS TIMES, YOU NEED MY STRENGTH FOR SELF PRESERVATION. SUBMIT AND ASCEND THE PEAK OR REFUSE AND EVERY MAN, WOMAN OR CHILD WILL LOSE THEIR LIVES. EITHER AT MY HAND OR AT THE HANDS OF YOUR ENEMIES.** "

" **CHOOSE.** "

For a long moment silence reigned.

Then, Chiyo stepped forward, kneeling on both knees, back straight and head lowered in submission.

Soon, the rest of the ninja and civilians imitated her.

A soft choking sob broke the sombre silence and as if the floodgates had been opened, the skies of the village hidden in the sand reverberated with the lament of a fallen people.

A smile stretched Lin Feng's lips. His hands twitched.

Now that he had a foothold, he felt an insatiable need to build it up into a fortress worthy of housing the hegemon of the Grand Architectural Sect.

His smile stretched wider.

He couldn't wait.


	4. Chapter 4

Lin Feng sat on the roof of the highest building in the village.

Originally built as a watchtower, it had become obsolete after the outer walls had been built.

It irked him greatly. It would be one of the first to go when he started rebuilding.

Obsolete buildings were a sure way to tell if a settlement had grown organically or if it had been planned.

Sunagakure was an odd mix of both types of development.

Originally planned as a pit stop for an agglomeration of ninja clans during the nomadic period of the first shinobi world war, it had become permanent after the war had ended abruptly with the rise of Hashirama Senju.

A curious case, that one. He was capable of much more than the theoretical limits of someone who walked the path of internal refinement.

Internal refinement was the precursor of the modern cultivation techniques. Chakra, chi, od, whatever you called it was basically an energy extracted from one's own cells.

It allowed for extremely rapid progress in power in exchange for no increase in lifespan. Actually, since it overdrew cell potential, it actually shortened lifespan.

Whatever be the case, since the body was only human, the progress plateaued out at twenty or so years of age and the maximum one could reach was quite paltry.

This Senju character on the other hand had inconceivable amounts of the stuff. From what he had gleaned from Shukaku's memory, the tailed-beast had been subdued by him without him even resorting to his vaunted sage mode.

Lin Feng suspected that the man probably had a life principle fragment in him. The dude had freaking created a forest all on his lonesome.

No human had that much energy in their frail body.

Sage mode was basically a balanced fusion of chakra and world vitality while cultivation involved purely using world vitality.

There were two paths to be followed in that case. The path of heavenly communion and the demonic path. Both had their advantages and disadvantages. Both extended lifespan.

Lin Feng had found a curious fact. The ability to sense world vitality was strangely missing in all humans in this realm.

He remembered the toad guy. Well, almost all humans. He had checked the entire population of Sunagakure for possible cultivation talents without success.

Apparently, his predecessor had made some modifications to the inhabitants of the world.

Not that he would have taught anyone. He was just a traveller in this realm. He would prefer to not moisten Karma.

Cultivation was an interminable quest for higher tier energies.

Chakra would be a low-level energy, world vitality a mid-level one while Void Force was the highest level of energy cultivation.

Beyond that, it was all esoteric and the quantity of energy became irrelevant in the face of principle comprehension.

Right now, he was in the early stage of Shattered Void realm and could only convert world vitality to Void Force instead of directly extracting the stuff from the Void.

After assimilating Shukaku's soul, his conjunction with world vitality had shot up.

As the tailed-beast was basically one ninth of the previous generation of the Will of the World and this generation of the Will was pretty immature, he had gained some jurisdiction over the aspect of the desert.

Thus, he could control sand even without any expenditure of energy.

This kind of operation was indicative of the Grasping Principles realm.

It was like an early access to the next realm and as such, his foundation was growing sturdier the more familiar he became with wielding this power.

This world was a treasure trove and he had been lucky to land where he had when he had.

If he had come here a millennium sooner, he would probably have had his nascent divinity concocted into a pill as nourishment for the expert.

Speaking of nascent divinities, no one here cultivated the soul. This was probably due to it being suppressed by the intruding expert.

As such, it had been very easy for him to scour the soul of that sand shinobi.

As for Shukaku, truly speaking assimilating its soul should have been extremely difficult due to it being part of the world will.

But, thanks to the Sage of the Six Paths' shoddy operation, its soul had been in an extremely precarious state and had unravelled with a few pointed jabs of his nascent divinity.

Actually, come to think of it, the old dude's Grand Dao of Samsara was not only fragmented, it was incomplete.

It lacked the most essential life, death and soul principles that would make it a true upper tier Divine Dao. The Grand Dao of Samsara Reincarnation.

Assuming that all the principle fragments were from the expert here, Hashirama's fragment must have come from him/her too.

It seemed that he would have to go hunting for these fragments and soon.

Any Dao Seeking realm expert with a Dao involving reincarnation would never be truly gone. They could pop up at any time.

He had to either race against time to usurp their Dao before they could reactivate, or, he could gather the portions of the world will and assimilate them, expanding his jurisdiction to levels comparable to him/her.

Or, he could, you know, do both.

His contemplation of his plans was interrupted by a messenger hawk landing on a railing near him.

Reading the message carried by it, he couldn't help but smile.

It was a call for reinforcement from Ebizo, Chiyo's brother. The Earth shinobi had declared war to the Hidden Sand immediately upon hearing of the loss of their tailed beast.

To ensure victory, they had mobilized the jinchuuriki of the four-tails.

If he had its volcanic aspect, he could make a start on his grand plan for the reconstruction of Sunagakure.

It seemed like it was time to subdue a monkey.


	5. Chapter 5

As the high-altitude winds ruffled his long golden hair, Lin Feng combed his knowledge of the Universe in a bid to identify the goal of the Dao Seeking expert who had come here.

…

There are two basic ways a society can evolve.

A technological civilization or a cultivation civilization.

In the case of cultivation civilizations, the people worship the world itself. They call it the Heavens and pray to it for more rain, exemption of disasters and what have you.

Over millennia, the prayers of billions cause the cumulative will of all sentient organisms to gather and form the Will of the World.

Henceforth, it can absorb the light of the sun and convert it into biological energy known as world vitality.

This world vitality nourishes all who live in its embrace, opening up the path to cultivation.

The higher the level of cultivation of its residents, the stronger their souls and by extension the stronger the will of the world.

It's a positive cycle that keeps running until a critical point is reached and the planetary system contacts Void Force and it elevates to the level of a plane.

Upon elevating to the status of a plane, the World Will gains an instinctive grasp of all the Grand Daos involved in its revolution.

This grasp is weaker than that of a Dao Seeking expert who needs a thorough comprehension of his Dao in order to condense it.

Thus, even with a single comprehended Dao, a Dao Seeking expert is considered to be on par with a low tier plane.

As for technological civilizations, they never developed a planetary will, leaving their planets as mundane hunks of rock.

They were stuck in a race to develop technology capable of harnessing Void Force before exhausting the resources of their home world.

If they failed, they died out, leaving a barren planet behind.

If they succeeded, they entered an era of intergalactic conquest using Void Force to fold space and achieve faster than light travel.

They were late bloomers in the sense that their scientific pursuits led to a more thorough understanding of the universe which in turn lent itself to a higher chance of reaching the realm of Grasping Principles or even Dao Seeking.

After which everyone was on even grounds as they floundered their way towards the realm of a Demiurge.

Planes basically existed in an isolated state from the Universe in their personal pockets of space within the Void.

As their Will's grasp on the Grand Daos regulating its revolution grew, they strengthened from low to mid to high tier planes and finally became a Dimension.

A Dimension basically being an alternate universe with its own unique operating principle.

…

Thus, it was very likely that the expert had come here to siphon off the plane's Will and use its instinctive grasp of many Grand Daos as a base for their Divine State.

A Divine State being a personal microcosm created from ones grasp of the Daos. In order to step into the boundary of a Demiurge, condensing a personal world was a necessary step.

Lin Feng's eyes shone with excitement.

This was a huge opportunity. The legwork required for condensing and manifesting the Will had already been undertaken by the expert.

The Will had even been weakened and split up by a bumbling idiot. The fruits were ripe for the picking and having tasted the instant power up he had gotten from Shukaku, he was eager for more.

…

"Look man, you don't have to make that kind of constipated expression. Ok, tell me, did anyone die during my takeover?"

Rasa, who was sitting beside him on the platform of sand he was using to ferry them to the Earth vs Sand battlefield shot a glance at him sideways and spoke as if he was spitting nails. "No."

"Am I strong?"

The redheaded former leader's eyebrows twitched. "Yes."

"Stronger than you?" coaxed Lin Feng.

A vein on his temple became pronounced. "Yes."

Lin Feng prodded further, "Stronger than your entire village combined?"

For a moment it seemed like Rasa would explode, but with a deep breath, he stabilized himself.

"If you wish to gloat, then you have succeeded. Yes, you are strong, but you are also foreign. An enslaver to our people. Pardon me if I cannot find it in myself to be grateful."

"Dude. It's not that complicated. I beat you and your entire village combined so I get to be the leader. As my subordinates I will obviously take care of you guys and promote you. What? Did you forget that swanky new wind attributed formation that I set up to guard your village before taking you with me? That nifty piece of rune work will enhance the natural sandstorms around your village and do a much better job of protecting your rear than if you were to personally stay there."

Rasa opened his mouth to refute and then grew pensive.

"Look, I'll make this even simpler for you. I could have killed you, but I didn't. So, you owe me the 'graciousness of not-killing' as they say in my homeland. Work off your obligation to me by becoming my subordinate."

"I think you are really new to your post, right? The Third Kazekage was supposed to be the strongest Kazekage ever. So, sand didn't really suffer too much in the Second World War and you guys have just shortly entered the battlefield for the Third World War. What was your manifesto again? Oh, revenge for the missing Third Kazekage as you believe Konoha is responsible for it somehow.

"The fact that you even bother with such flimsy excuses to mask your bid for more territories and power shows that you haven't realized the true essence of war.

"The history is always written by the victors. Might makes right and if you wipe out Konoha to every last man, woman or child, your truth will be the only one left to be expounded by future scholars.

"If this were an age of peace, I would have to worry about retribution from a coalition of all the world's powers if I went about being arbitrary with my strength. Now? I don't have to care about a thing if I wipe you out. Maybe the others will even thank me for it.

"You're smart enough to be the leader of a people. After speaking this far you should know what future course you should follow."

Rasa went silent for a long moment before with a sigh he handed over his official hat.

Lin Feng laughed brightly and patted him on the back, nearly knocking him off the sandy platform.

"No, no, no. Why would I want that silly hat? You are smart. Doesn't mean your entire village is. If I were to don that thing, someone would be foolish enough to instigate a rebellion and then where would I be? I'd have to kill people and rule by fear. Trust me, that's highly inefficient. So, I needed a figurehead to relay my orders to your people. You, my man, were the most appropriate candidate.

"Rejoice. You won't regret your choice. But, for now, we have reached our destination."

Looking down, he could see the two armies clashing.

Particularly, one area was glowing with a red brilliance as large swathes of land melted into lava.

As they descended, he turned to Rasa with a grin, "Come, we have a beast to catch."


	6. Chapter 6

The wind whipped past his ear as he free fell after dispersing the platform of sand.

His white cloak flapped around him as he neared the ground.

Beside him Rasa too plummeted to the ground with him, both of them spread-eagled to maximize drag.

Lin Feng chuckled inwardly at the refusal of the man to attenuate his fall with his golden sand before he used his own.

The stoic redhead had a competitive streak a mile wide. Probably why he started the war anyway.

He definitely wanted to come out of the shadow of the Third Kazekage and capture his title of the strongest.

As they both came closer and closer to the ground, close beads of sweat appeared on Rasa's forehead only to be whipped away by the wind from his descent.

Finally, just about a hundred metres from the ground, he couldn't insist anymore and called upon gold dust from the gourd strapped to his back and slowed his fall.

Lin Feng laughed heartily and inspired deeply, the world vitality flowing into him and then through him and out of his pores.

His body was a woodwind instrument and the world vitality the air it needed to play its melody.

The air around him twisted and vibrated in a strange rhythm, blurring his form as a vortex formed centred on him.

Everyone in the battlefield stopped as a huge pressure covered them. Looking up, they saw his form expanding as sand accumulated on him.

The fully transformed four-tails roared its challenge as it leapt up to meet him mid-air, lava wreathing its fist.

Magma fist and sand claw met with a shockwave that rippled across the battlefield.

Globules of molten glass scattered from the point of contact, causing many shinobi to have to hastily fend to the side to avoid a painful death.

Aided by the momentum from the fall and the turbulent world vitality, Lin Feng came off from the encounter with only a ruptured arm while the four-tails was embedded deep into the earth.

Fissures spread in all directions from the crater as Lin Feng in the shape of Shukaku waddled towards it while sand accumulated on his lost arm and it regenerated.

As he approached, a heatwave washed over him. The fissures began to glow with a dim red light as the rock at the centre of the crater softened and began to melt.

The heat distorted the air as a pillar of flame rose up to the skies. With a manic howl, a humongous ape with rust red hair hurtled out of the flames towards him.

Lin Feng, fully transformed as Shukaku, inhaled deeply and the air and world vitality for miles around him became sparse as his stomach inflated.

The four tails lost control of its mad dash and tumbled head over heels as it was sucked towards the inflated sandy racoon.

Hammering a fist to his bloated stomach, he spat out a ball of compressed air at the approaching four-tails.

A deafening collision was followed by the form of the tailed beast flying away like red bullet and slamming into a cliff face, collapsing it on top of it.

Gesturing with his arms, sand surged forwards like the sea and buried the area where the four-tails had fallen.

With an effort of will, the sand formed a sphere around the struggling ape and slowly rose up into the air slowly shrinking as it got compressed.

The four-tails howled and emitted flames from every pore, the extreme heat fusing the sand into glass.

In a few moments, the entire sphere hade become translucent as it melted into liquid glass.

Lin Feng gritted his teeth as he supported the orb with hard and stubborn effort. The four-tails was a lot stronger than the one tails and if it were not for him providing support by imbuing world vitality into the sand, it would have already broken free.

His eyes bloomed with an extraordinary splendour as he invested the entirety of his will into some Void Force he had transformed from world vitality within the day he had spent idly after capturing Suna.

He delved into the world principles contained within Shukaku, barely managing get a superficial read on it due to his fusion with its soul.

He found what he was looking for and with a primal yell, he erupted with the entirety of his Shattered Void cultivation base.

The remaining sand which constituted his colossal body flowed away towards the glass orb and wrapped around it, leaving him exposed.

Before the four-tails could struggle free from the new impediment, his fingers blurred as he pinched seals. Every stroke inspiring invisible ripples in space that all converged on the surface of the sphere, forming patterns similar to those on Shukaku's body.

With a final shout of "SEAL", the world seemed to grow still as the world vitality gathered towards the floating orb, filling in the etched patterns with a glowing blue energy.

As suddenly as it had begun, the mutation ended. The large glass orb crashed onto the ground, the light from the patterns fading away leaving the four tails stuck like an insect in amber.

Lin Feng barely had time to gasp for breath before he had to teleport away from a beam of white light that would surely have blown a hole in him.

He reappeared above the sphere and looked towards the source of the beam.

A hoary headed midget floated in the air, keeping off Rasa's offensive with relative ease as he kept one eye on Lin Feng.

"Who's short-stuff?" Lin Feng asked Rasa. He had felt a profound sense of danger from the beam that had grazed him.

"The Third Tsuchikage, Onoki."


	7. Chapter 7

Onoki drew back a few paces until he formed a triangular formation with Lin Feng and Rasa.

The clash between the armies which had stagnated for a moment had resumed with renewed vigour from the Sand shinobi who had been emboldened by the sealing of the Four-tails.

The three of them floated above the battlefield, Rasa and the exhausted Lin Feng keeping Onoki in check.

Onoki narrowed his eyes as he asked, "Who are you, boy?"

A blue vein popped up on Lin Feng's temple. "Oi, oi, oi. What'd you just say?"

Onoki's eyes narrowed further. "Has nobody taught you to be respectful to your seniors, boy? I asked you to identify yourself."

Lin Feng exploded. "Boy? Who're you calling boy, pipsqueak? I'm eighty-five this year. What're you? Sixty? Where do you get off calling me boy? I've had enough of this respect your elders bullshit from the old fogies with a foot in the grave in our sect. Just because they were jealous of my being the youngest Knowing the Will of the Heavens boundary practitioner in a thousand years, they had to press me with their seniority. I'll be damned if I take this nonsense from some pipsqueak decades my junior."

A blue vein popped up on Onoki's temple. "Who're you calling pipsqueak, **_boy_**? I'll be damned if I believe you. You don't look a day over twenty."

Lin Feng grit his teeth, "Not my problem if you don't age well, **_pipsqueak_**."

Their voice rang out in unison. "Wanna die?"

The corners of Rasa's mouth twitched as he wondered how people so strong could be so childish.

"Hey Kazekage, where'd you get this uncouth bastard of a jinchuuriki? That old monk was much better."

Rasa set up his best poker face. "We wanted to tempt one of your tailed beasts out to capture it. So, we acted in a play about going to war with Konoha and then about our tailed beast getting stolen."

Onoki was startled and then quickly recovered his composure. "So, you collaborated with Konoha? What about him then?"

Rasa shrugged. "He was always the jinchuuriki, he just lent Bunpuku (the dead monk) the chakra so he could pretend to be the real one."

Off to the side, Lin Feng admired his bullshitting skills.

Onoki's chakra flared. "So, you want the tailed beast? The plan is good but, did. You. Ask. Me?"

With each word, his aura increased in intensity and the pressure that emanated from him bore down on Rasa and Lin Feng.

With a laugh, Lin Feng exerted his own influence on the world vitality around them, creating a tangible oppression that counterbalanced his.

"Hey, Kazekage protect the sealed beast. His technique is strange. I can't fight while protecting it and if he breaks the four-tails out, its back to square one. Let's play pipsqueak."

Rasa exchanged his position with Lin Feng and created a multi-layered barrier around the sealed beast with his gold dust as Onoki watched critically.

"The Kazekage respects your opinion an awful lot, doesn't he?"

"Yeah… My opinions are generally worth respecting. So… let's get this show on the road, shall we?"

The region around Lin Feng seemed to warp as his acupoints opened and closed in a specific pattern and the world vitality flowed through him gaining the characteristics of a gale.

His fingers blurred as they directed the modified energy like a conductor at an orchestra, generating blasts of compressed air which flew rapidly towards the Tsuchikage.

The experienced warrior that he was, Onoki, ducked and weaved through the barrage with ease, while weaving hand signs.

Splitting up two rock clones, he sent one flying towards Lin Feng while the other one used the rock golem technique to form a barrier to block the concussive blasts while he prepared a stronger technique.

Lin Feng used his enhanced sensation strength while using world vitality to keep tabs on the original while he marvelled at the ability of the Tsuchikage to make his clones almost indistinguishable from the original.

As he kept up his barrage towards the onrushing clone, he noticed the distinct lack of any sort of wind or propulsive force which should be fuelling its high-speed migration.

Instead, it seemed as if it was being dragged forwards by some force or to be more accurate, it was perpetually falling towards something.

Lin Feng's eyes widened in realization. It was the principle of Gravity at play here. The Tsuchikage was somehow able to slightly utilize it by relying on some sort of crutch within him and feeding that crutch his chakra.

Closing his eyes, he concentrated on his sensation strength. Combining the world vitality sensation with his soul sense, he could feel a fuzzy strength that permeated the entirety of Onoki's soul.

This strength was very familiar as it was the same as Shukaku's soul, a fragment of the Will of the World.

It would appear that the confrontation between the Dao Seeking intruder and the World Will had ended in mutual destruction and a lot of the Will's fragments had scattered over the land, falling on various humans, granting them various special capabilities.

Now that he sensed more carefully, he found the same strength in Rasa and a few shinobi in the armies clashing below him.

These abilities were probably what this plane knew as Kekkei Genkai or bloodline limits.

This plane was absurd, somehow managing to mesh energy of the lowest tier with the strength of principles and Daos.

It was like giving a gun with automated aim to an amateur. He could shoot whatever he wanted with it but he would never learn to aim, let alone improve upon his shooting.

He also sensed that this plane's operating principles supported the path of conjuration.

That is, converting energy like chakra or world vitality into material objects was much more efficient here than in the Universe where absurd amounts would be required to materialize even a gram of mass.

Although, the conjured mass reverted back to energy soon afterwards.

Thus, he changed his tactics. Leveraging the near inexhaustible nature of world vitality, he changed the silent serenade that his body sang to the world into one that spoke of water.

The world changed.

In the Cultivation world, a legend has spread since time immemorial, about a divine ability possessed by the strongest of cultivators. Moving Mountains to Fill Seas.

This day, in the mountainous border between Suna and Iwa, all present witnessed an ability that could be said to rival it.

Moving Seas to Fill the Mountains.


	8. Chapter 8

Let us pause the action here for a moment and talk about the cultivation path followed by our Hero.

Cultivators in general go down two different paths. The path of Heavenly Communion or the Demonic Path. Now, don't go mixing up Demonic Path with Devil cultivators.

The poor muscleheads will get really offended at the misunderstanding.

While the monikers Devil, Chaotic, Neutral or Orthodox relate with a moral standpoint, Paths are just different ways to cultivate with World Vitality.

Our Hero follows the Path of Heavenly Communion. Thus, he had to start with the Sensing the Heavens realm where he had learnt to sense the World Vitality by cutting off all five of his senses and remaining there till he could.

Next, he had to learn how to affect World Vitality and induce it to enter his body through the breath. This was the Breathing with the Heavens realm.

Then it was a matter of opening his acupoints to allow intercommunication of the World Vitality within his body and outside it. This was the Attuning to the Heavens realm.

Finally, he was required to treat his body like a flute and world vitality as the air which passed in and out through the acupoints creating a melody that instructed the world vitality in the surroundings about what to do. This was the Communing with the Heavens realm.

This was the highest realm that most cultivators reached in their extended life of two hundred years.

Only one in 10,000 could hope of attaining the pinnacle of the Path whereby one could sense the nearly imperceptible flows of World Vitality and use it to enhance the might of their attacks or use it to try and sense the Void in order to attack the Shattered Void realm. This was the Knowing the Will of the Heavens realm.

Demonic Path cultivators have the first two steps the same, following which, instead of opening acupoints, they seal these acupoints and excavate their dantian and meridians in which they gather ever increasing amounts of World Vitality until it liquefies and then solidifies.

Finally, it is supposed to reach a high enough concentration to warp the fabric of reality enough to reach the Void. The difficulty in the Demonic Path lay in succeeding in tempering one's body enough to hold the ever more concentrated energies without exploding.

Some people even called the cultivators on the different paths Qi cultivators and Mages.

Alright, let us get back to our Heroic Mage as he faces off against a wrinkly midget from the Earth country… sure we aren't talking about gnomes here?

…

Onoki felt wet. His army felt drenched. The members of the Suna army too were bedraggled.

The cause of this floated a few hundred metres from him, on a platform of sand, taking in the sight of his handiwork with great interest.

The valleys had turned into lakes and the canyons into streams. Sopping wet shinobi were emerging from the water, onto land high enough not to be submerged.

The subterranean squad of the rock ninja were the ones worst off as they had been caught off guard when their tunnels had been flooded.

They were among the very few squads who had casualties. After all they were shinobi. A soaking wasn't really fatal, no matter how large in scale it was.

Onoki blew away a strand of his hair which had plastered itself on his face after his topknot had come loose in the deluge.

His rock golem and two clones had expired as had the particle style attack which he had been fermenting.

His innermost feelings sobbed. Really wilful. Oh, what he would be capable of with unlimited chakra like the smug bastard in front of him.

Rasa who had been spectating their fight felt the corners of his mouth twitch. Looking at Onoki's pitiful state, he suddenly had feelings of like grieving for like.

The bastard probably had a fetish for pounding people with gigantic objects.

First, it was two colossal cauldrons condensed from sand. Now, it had upgraded to the level of an entire lake's worth of water.

He shuddered to speculate what it could be next time.

Onoki's eyes flashed with an intense spunk. It had been more than a decade since someone had toyed with him in this manner.

His hands blurred into motion completing his seals in the blink of an eye. Putty seemed to seep out of his pores, solidifying into rock armour.

The armour encompassed his entire body, only leaving a T shaped gap in the helmet through which his eyes filled with killing intent were visible.

With an angry shout, the Tsuchikage battered towards him.

Lin Feng grew dignified.

As a Heavenly Communion cultivator, close combat was his weak link. This had been solved when he had broken through the Shattered Void realm.

So long as he had Void Force, any attack incapable of shattering space would be kept off by the spatial turbulence surrounding his body. Like the kunai thrown by the sand shinobi scout which had been twisted into a pretzel.

Unfortunately, he had run out of all his accumulated Void Force when he was sealing the four-tails.

Thankfully, he wasn't totally defenceless. Shukaku was the tailed beast infamous for being the defensively strongest.

Its tortoise-shell had even the true turtle, the three-tails, beat in terms of defence.

Onoki's rock clad fist smashed into a barrier of sand scattering it but unable to penetrate further.

Undeterred, he flit around Lin Feng, laying into the barrier from all directions while avoiding or tanking the barrage of air bullets shot by him.

Lin Feng's brows furrowed deeper and deeper as it became increasingly harder to control the sand as with each hit, the part that came in contact with Onoki became a little heavier.

This way, he would soon lose his cover.

Suddenly, his eyes grew bright as the opportunity presented itself.

It was the problem Demonic Path cultivators faced when fighting Mages like him. As the Demonic cultivators used the energy inside them, the origin point of whatever technique they used was their body.

Mages on the other hand could have their spells originate from anywhere within the range of their control.

As everyone in this plane used chakra in a fashion similar to Demonic Cultivators. They wouldn't have come up with tactics to counter this.

Just as Onoki approached for another attack, walls of water surrounded him from all directions and imprisoned him.

The space within quickly filled with water which began to swirl around violently to keep him disoriented and make using a jutsu difficult.

Lin Feng kept increasing the volume of water surrounding the Tsuchikage to ensure that he couldn't escape.

After a few minutes of futile struggles, the warrior grew still.

All this while, the Iwa Shinobi had struggled furiously against the entanglement of the Sand ninja in order to get free and assist their leader.

Yet, the sand shinobi, encouraged by their impending success had delayed them long enough.

With a booming laugh, Lin Feng approached the water prison in order to extract the unconscious Kage in order to prevent his death and to use him as a hostage against Iwa.

Maybe he could fish for the dominion of another hidden village.

A profound sense of crisis covered him and he immediately dodged.

He was just in time to avoid a broad beam of white light that passed through the edge of the water prison, dispersing it.

The limp body of the Kage dropped to the ground, but before Lin Feng could snag it, Onoki's rock clone, which had hidden in the bottom of the newly created lake all this time, leapt out and caught it. It was the one who had sneak attacked him.

It ordered for all Iwa shinobi to retreat and sped away from the battlefield as fast as possible.

The Sand shinobi gave chase but didn't pursue too tightly or too far as their goal (they had no idea that Rasa had been bullshitting) of capturing the tailed-beast had been accomplished and the opposite parties' leader injured.

As they took inventory of the casualties, Lin Feng looked at the sleeve of his left hand which had been disintegrated along with some skin and flesh on his arm.

The wound was already healing due the regeneration rate bonus from the world vitality but it was a reminder that he wasn't totally safe in this world.


	9. Chapter 9

Lin Feng stood in front of the sealed four-tails in the middle of the desert.

He had decided to assimilate the soul of the beast far away from any signs of civilization.

He might trust Rasa to follow his orders, but that was in the situation of an absolute disparity in strength.

If he showed any weakness, the ambitious man would exploit it without a shred of hesitation.

He meditated on the flows of energy all around him, synchronizing with the world.

His form started to become unreal as he tapped into the Void.

Transparent streams of energy, that warped the space around him, flowed into him.

The battle against the four-tails and the Tsuchikage had pushed his control of his newfound powers over sand and given him a glimpse into the mysteries of the Grasping Principles realm.

As such, he had experienced a minor breakthrough in his understanding of Void Force.

While earlier, he could only convert world vitality into Void Force, now he could siphon off a bit of it directly from the Void.

Although, achieving that required him to be in a deep meditative state.

As the concentration of the energy within his body reached a critical level, he tapped into his power over the desert.

For miles centred around him and the orb containing the sealed beast, pillars of sand rose.

They varied in height and girth and were hollow with perforations, at irregular intervals, scattered all over them.

Anyone looking at them, from an appropriate distance, would be startled by their resemblance to flutes.

With an effort of his will, the world vitality began to circulate through these pillars and revolve in a complicated pattern that made the entire formation blur.

It was the signature technique of the Grand Architectural Sect: three-dimensional formations.

It involved using buildings and constructions to reroute the natural circulation of world vitality by imitating the operating principles of Mages and their acupoints.

It was an extremely high-level skill. Formations made in such a manner were exponentially stronger than ordinary runic formations but they were very personalized as acupoints were uniquely distributed from person to person and only the one whose acupoint distribution had been imitated to make the formation could use it.

This skill was not suitable for battles as no opponent would give you set up time for it. But it was the main source of income for the Sect as every Mage worth his title would commission one for his or her stronghold.

Not to mention cities. A regular need to alter citywide formations to work for the new city lords, whenever the previous one's term ended, provided a stable source of income.

After gaining Shukaku's power, this was the first application of it he had thought towards.

The formation was basically a gigantic amplifier for him.

His ability to instantly create structures from sand and his profound familiarity with both his own acupoint distribution and the formation technique let him perform a miracle in the desert.

He could create a small amplification formation within the influence of his sand manipulation. Then he could use the amplified reach to expand the formation which would in turn expand the region of influence. This would create a positive cycle whereby he could expand his influence over the entire desert.

Within the desert, he would be a God.

Theory is happy, but reality is heartless. The mental load of performing the amount of calculations required for erecting such a grand formation, at the degree of precision required for it to be functional, was enough to destroy his mind.

His current limit was a few miles.

Also, it was easy to disrupt, as even a pillar out of place would mess up the circulation.

The citywide formations solved this by using runic formations to protect the components of the 3-D formation. Something which couldn't be achieved in a short time.

As the formation hummed into life, Lin Feng could feel his senses expand and the power within his grasp increase doubled and redoubled.

With a deep breath, he sat down cross legged in front of the glass orb and placed his palms on it.

The dark blue patterns that covered his body began to glow as Void Force and world vitality emerged into it.

The seal on the orb, too, lit up with a matching blue radiance.

The patterns on his body wriggled and started circulating all over it, as did the seals on the orb.

A connection soon formed between them and the patterns from the orb transferred through one of his palms, circulated around his body and passed back through the other palm.

Slowly, the accumulated world vitality and Void Force poured into the orb along with the seal patterns and washed away some of the four-tails' energy.

This energy too was added into the circulation, mixing with Lin Feng's personal mix of energies.

Like a stream wearing away a rock, he persevered, forgetting all sense of time.

Finally, all that was left was the corpse of a robust red-haired man entombed in glass.

Lin Feng sat in meditation beside it, his aura faint and his figure illusory.

The pillars of sand had crumbled as the last of the energy and the seals had flowed into his body.

Currently, he was in the most critical phase of the assimilation: soul combat.

Unlike the sand ninja, whose soul was too weak or Shukaku, whose soul had a fatal flaw, the four-tails' soul was quite thorny.

The Soul Cultivation technique he practiced was the Four Colour Soul Sutra.

It assigned attributes to the four major components of the soul and allowed them to be used either to augment the soul during cultivation or during combat in the mindscape.

In his mindscape, in a limitless blank white space, he faced off against the enraged ape.

Son Goku, for that was its name, charged at him, its powerful muscles bunching and flexing as it propelled itself toward the hateful human which had ripped it away, painfully, from its previous host.

Lin Feng's soul stood its ground, unflustered as the behemoth expanded in its line of sight.

With a mutter of "Enthusiasm Fire", a bright reddish-pink flame emerged baseless on the approaching ape.

Screaming in pain, the beast tumbled mid-charge and passed through his side, ruffling his clothes with the wind of its passing.

It writhed on the ground, trying desperately to extinguish the flames that enveloped it.

As it struggled, it sometimes laughed, sometimes cried, sometimes roared in anger and sometimes cowered in fear. It cycled through the entire gamut of emotions as the Enthusiasm Fire, emotion given spiritual form, seared it.

The face of Lin Feng's soul form grew pale as he kept up the technique, bringing the beast's soul to the edge of collapse.

In a bout of anger, the tailed-beast erupted with the considerable amount of soul power it possessed, routing the flame, causing a backlash to his soul.

It roared, emitting globules of light and dark energy that condensed together into a jet-black sphere.

Feeling the constriction from the amount of condensed energy, Lin Feng quickly stabilised his injury and slammed his palms on the ground.

"Resolution Earth."

The ground rippled where he touched it and multiple thick metallic walls rose between him and the beast.

The four-tails stretched out its neck and swallowed the orb. Its body immediately inflated from the contained forces.

It roared. The world turned white.

After a long time, the reverberations of the mindscape settled, the cracks closing slowly.

Out of nine walls, the beast had breached five. The penetrated ones still glowing red from the heat.

Lin Feng's soul breathed out a sigh of relief. Thankfully, he had tempered his Will to the Iron will boundary. If he was still stuck in the stone will boundary of Resolution Earth, he would have died from that impact.

He didn't give the beast any time to recover as he muttered, "River of Recollection."

A deluge of water formed from his condensed memories washed away the panting beast, destroying the memories in its enfeebled psyche before it could recover.

The four-tails' struggles grew less intense until they stopped and it just lay there like a good-for-nothing.

"Aeolian thoughts."

An abrasive breeze picked up and blew upon the soul form of the tailed-beast and it was slowly eroded away to nothingness.

In the real world, Lin Feng's eyes snapped open as he exited his mindscape.

He had succeeded.


	10. Chapter 10

Lin Feng stood and patted the sand off his robes.

A completely unnecessary gesture as the spatial barrier formed by the Void Force swirling around had kept him clean.

With a wave of his hand, the glass orb sank into the sand, leaving no trace of the former host of Son Goku.

A dribble of blood ran down his nose.

He wiped it away with the back of his hand. It looked like he would have to take it easy on using the powers of the tailed beasts until he had completely digested the new fragment of the world will.

Currently, using them would cause them to conflict within his soul, which was weakened by the recent combat, damaging it further.

Stretching, to work the kinks out of his body from sitting still for so long, he walked into the Void.

And out of it on the rooftop of the abandoned watchtower in Suna.

He immersed in the newfound precision of his teleportation for a moment before vanishing yet again.

This time, he directly reappeared in the office of the Kazekage.

Only to be submerged by a barrage of kunai from his guards and a wave of golden sand.

Partly stepping into the Void, his form grew illusory and the attacks passed through him harmlessly.

When Rasa realized who it was that had intruded into his office, he hastily called off the attack and dismissed his guards, leaving them alone in the room.

Lin Feng's form solidified and he walked over to his desk and flopped down on a chair opposite him.

"So, how long have I been missing?"

"Just shy of a fortnight."

"Missed me?"

Rasa's lips quirked into a humourless smile, "As a matter of fact, yes. It has been quite challenging to convince those who have recently returned to the village of its change in ownerships without the deterrent of your presence. Thankfully, your victory over the Tsuchikage was enough for them to realise that it is much better to have you as an ally than a foe."

"Oh? Good. Then I won't have to beat some sense into them."

"Ahem. They want you to hand over the four-tails."

"I spoke too soon… Tell them I sealed it within me and if they have a problem with it, they're welcome to try their luck against me. Just let them know that I won't be lenient with their lives anymore."

"What?! Impossible! It's not possible to seal multiple tailed beasts within a host."

Lin Feng shrugged and held out both his hands. The left hand got coated in magma while the right had sand circling around it.

He dismissed the powers and turned around and vanished, leaving a shocked Rasa behind.

When he reappeared on top of the watchtower, he coughed out some blood.

Wiping his mouth, he straightened up as he took in the sight of the village spread out below him.

All the materials needed for his plans for the village had been acquired. He just needed to close up for some time in order to perfectly digest his gains and patch his injured soul. He could then begin his work.

Setting up a formation to keep himself hidden, he lay down on the roof under the crimson rays of the setting sun and closed his eyes.

Soul cultivation was one of the most esoteric paths of cultivation.

The soul referred to the amalgam of mind, emotion, memory and will. Strengthening it was mandatory if one wanted to comprehend the more complicated of cultivation techniques and martial arts.

After reaching the peak of the Shattered Void realm, it would be the only path left for progress as the stronger the soul, the easier it was to sense principles.

Cultivating the soul was a basic requirement for mastering the illusion arts and for effective soul combat.

Speaking of illusion arts, in this plane, the art was dependent on using one's chakra to affect the opposite party's flow of chakra.

A more physical form of the art rather than the ones he knew that directly affected the soul. Both had their merits.

The soul illusions were stronger but difficult to grasp. The energetic illusions were easier to learn but weaker.

The strength of a person's soul also determined how resistant to illusions they were.

The soul intensity of someone without any formal training in soul cultivation depended on his life experience.

The older he was, the more memories he had, the more intense the emotions he had experienced, the stronger was his will, in that his philosophy on life was that much more mature. Thus, his soul grew stronger with age.

The higher his social status and the stronger his personal ability, the greater his confidence and the stronger his soul.

The more intelligent he was and the better his memory, the stronger would his soul be.

Many factors affected the strength of a soul and there were many ways of cultivating it, but all had two steps in common.

The formation of a mindscape to protect one's soul and the condensation of a nascent divinity, also known as the soul form.

Beyond this, depending on the art, various visualization methods were used to generate weapons for the soul to battle with in the mindscape.

His art created the four elements corresponding to the four constituents of the soul.

As he meditated, he fed his emotions into a wisp of reddish-pink flame, achieving a zen state.

The temperature of the flame, named Enthusiasm Fire, was dependent on the peak intensity of the emotions he had felt in his life.

This technique was considered an inheritance technique as all generations of sect masters of the Grand Architectural Sect had fired the souls of their chosen successors with it, making them experience the peak emotions they had felt in their life.

Thus, from generation to generation, the Enthusiasm Fire had gotten stronger as it had been passed down.

Before leaving, Lin Feng too had passed it down to his apprentice.

After reaching the zen state, he visualized his errant thoughts as a capricious wind that blew throughout his mind.

He mentally calmed the wind until his mind was still with only a gentle breeze blowing in a single direction. The longer he maintained this state, the more ordered his thoughts and the stronger his soul would become.

Forging ahead, he condensed the memories of the day into a drop of water which he added to his river of memories.

Finally, he reaffirmed his immediate and future goals and meditated upon his own personality in order to strengthen his Will.

In his mindscape, his nascent divinity shone with a four-coloured glaze when he finally completed his meditation and awoke.

His stomach rumbled, informing him that he hadn't eaten a thing for nearly twenty days. Which meant that he had been meditating for nearly six days.

Standing up, he inspected the changes in his body.

His formerly golden mane had turned rust red with highlights of gold. It had lengthened hanging down to his ankles.

The blue markings that had so recently overspread his body had condensed into one mark depicting a dark blue crescent cradling a small circle on his right cheek.

His eyes were still pitch black but his iris had taken on an amber tint with a diamond shaped pupil.

Condensing a blade out of wind, he pared his inconveniently long hair close to his skull, further defining the rugged lines of his face.

Now that his soul had assimilated both fragments of the World Will, he could start his work.

Another growl from his stomach had him searching for something to eat.

He could work later.


	11. Chapter 11

Rasa put down the last piece of paperwork for the day and let out a relieved sigh as he sank back into his chair.

Another day without that absurd monster showing his face.

He had appeared out of nowhere and won the one-tails from its host.

The very next day, he had come for the village hidden in the sand and there was nothing the combined forces of the village could do against him.

Then, he had fought off the Tsuchikage on their behalf and snatched the four-tails.

In an inconceivable turn of events, he had even found a way to fuse with both beasts at the same time.

Every time Rasa saw him, he seemed to become more terrifying.

Externally, although it seemed that the entire village was still under his control, internally, the undercurrents were surging.

The voices of the dissidents who felt that Rasa was only a puppet of the monster and that instead of spinelessly submitting to its might, they should rally together to revolt.

The faction led by Pakura of the scorch style was particularly insistent and annoying.

The twenty-year-old kunoichi had gained a great deal of fame on the Iwa-Suna battlefield.

It was her squad who had held off the four-tails while she kept Onoki at bay with her bloodline limit, in the time it had taken them to arrive on the battlefield, saving innumerable lives and gaining the moniker of Hero of the Sand.

With a head full of youthful ideals and strength to back it up, she was turning out to be a powerful political rival.

After his 'talk' with the monster on their way to the battlefield, he couldn't really deny their claims of his being a puppet ruler.

But, if the alternative was to pit themselves against the monster, he would be the first to disapprove.

It hadn't been hard for it to subdue the village with only one tailed-beast.

It would be simpler with two.

Anyway, it wasn't as if they hadn't benefitted from the association. An upgraded protective formation, vastly increased prestige and a weakened enemy.

All they had to pay for it till now was his verbal admission of surrender. He wasn't naïve enough to believe that it would forever stay that way.

That is why every day he didn't see the monster was such a relief. He knew that their next meeting would be one where the Village had to repay its debts.

Think of the Devil and he shall come.

His eyes snapped open as he felt the dreaded presence appear in his room. It frustrated him to no end that he couldn't even detect how he managed to bypass the wards.

Another demonstration of authority. The message was loud and clear: 'Your life is in my hands.'

The monster looked quite different.

The new shade of hair, the mark on his cheek and striking amber eyes that seemed to glow within the backdrop of darkness that was its sclera.

He had become more terrifying. Again.

Rasa sighed with resignation, "What can my humble self achieve for you this fine day?"

Lin Feng finished gnawing on the, surprisingly delicious, fried scorpions he had bought off a roadside stall and said, "Its time for your village to get a makeover. I need your help for the evacuation and during the construction. Come."

Before he could even react, Lin Feng grabbed Rasa's arm, coating both of them with Void Force he stepped into the Void reappearing on a platform of sand floating over the centre of the village.

Blinking away his confusion at the change of scenery, Rasa clenched his fists.

This feeling of being dragged around like a toy was so intensely humiliating and yet there was nothing he could do despite being one of the most powerful men in the world.

With another deep sigh, he purged all his negative emotions and turned to the monster beside him.

"What would you have me do?"

"Just announce that there is going to be a comprehensive upgrade of the village infrastructure and for that, all the people need to get out of their houses and stand in an open area. I'll do the rest."

Shrugging, he complied, his hands blurring into seals for a wind style jutsu that amplified his voice.

"ATTENTION, DENIZENS OF SUNAGAKURE, THIS IS THE KAZEKAGE AND WE ARE EMPLOYING ALERT LEVEL 2. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL."

From their perch in the sky, they saw all the people in the village burst into a flurry of activity.

Like ants emerging from a kicked anthill, all people swarmed out of their houses with their valuables and deeds, making their way to the nearest shelter.

The shinobi maintained order, preventing stampedes and speeding up the evacuation process.

Within hours of the announcement, the entirety of the village had been emptied of its residents.

Lin Feng was impressed by the discipline of the villagers and the extensive measures in place for emergency evacuations.

Several messenger hawks had come and gone in a steady stream between Rasa and the various squads of shinobi that were assisting with the migration reporting their status and asking for explanations.

A letter asking whether this was a preparation to fight a decisive battle against the monster caught Lin Feng's attention.

"What is this? Should I be worried about a rebellion, my dear man? Didn't you assure me that you had the situation well under control?"

Rasa winced at the sight of Lin Feng's teasing grin. "One of my more vocal detractors: Pakura of the scorch style. Now being hailed as a Hero of the Sand for her military exploits. Troublesome, but manageable. No need to worry."

"I'll trust your word." Clapping his hands, he excitedly said, "Now that all the preparatory work is over, let us begin."

"It's time to usher in a new Sand."


	12. Chapter 12

Pakura stood atop the boundary wall of the village, as the air lensed in front of her eyes, magnifying the image of the two figures on the platform of sand hovering above the now deserted village.

She observed the man who had appeared out of nowhere and enslaved her village and the traitor of a Kazekage who had bent to his will.

Red and gold hair glinted under the sun, framing a face almost inhuman in its perfection. The square jaw and prominent nose gave his eerily symmetrical visage a masculine cast. His sculpted body, too perfect to ever appear on a mortal, moved with a sinuous grace as he clapped his hands with undisguised glee.

Then, he waved his hands and the desert responded to his call.

Pakura had to adhere her feet to the ground with chakra to keep her balance as the entire village quaked.

The foundations of the village, constituted of sand compressed to stone by the efforts of generations of sand shinobi, shattered as pillars of sand rose from all parts of the village.

After the pillars took shape, an even stronger tremor ran through the village as a huge oppression covered it.

The sand outside the boundary wall seethed with excitement as it gathered in a huge wave that slammed against the wall.

She had to leap off the crumbling structure and retreat into the desert as the roiling sand eroded and assimilated the mortar.

Her palms were moistened with sweat and her body was shivering at the monstrous display of might. Was this what she had to fight against to free her village.

The disparity in strength made her despair.

The torrent of sand finally broke through the blockade of the wall and gushed into the village proper.

She felt her cheeks grow moist from her tears as she watched the familiar streets and shops disintegrate in the onslaught.

She cried as the village she had sworn to protect was destroyed.

Anger and sorrow cut through her fear as the sand submerged the graveyard, desecrating the resting place of the heroes who had offered up their lives for the village.

Some of whom she had fought alongside. Some of whose cold bodies she had brought back to the village personally. Two of whom had brought her into this world.

She recast her sensory jutsu and trained her hate-filled gaze on the Kazekage who had stood by and allowed this travesty to occur.

When the order for the evacuation had been announced, she had been excited at the prospect of this being the prelude to a decisive battle against the monster.

Her hopes had been dashed when she had spied upon the two of them standing on the platform harmoniously.

Desperate, she had sent her message to the Kazekage, hoping that the monster saw it and grew suspicious of him.

She wanted it to spark a conflict between them, forcing the Kazekage to oppose it, giving her an opportunity to rally the entirety of the shinobi forces and resist the monster.

She hadn't expected him to hand over the letter directly to curry favour with it.

As she watched the desert swallow down the last signs of her homeland, she clenched her teeth so hard, her gums bled. She was a ninja, enduring was their creed.

Her eyes blazed with determination. She would endure in silence till she was powerful enough for vengeance.

The monster waved his hand yet again and the world changed.

At the very centre of the razed village, a large square of sand rose. With a turn of his wrist, it was compacted into a slab of sandstone.

He waved his arms like a conductor at an orchestra and the sand was at his beck and call.

Progressively smaller squares of sandstone emerged on the block, creating a nine layered staircase.

On top of the final square emerged a sandy pagoda, which too had nine stories.

With another flick of his wrist, the entire construction burnt.

The flames licked it from the inside to the outside, fusing the sand into a crystalline glass.

As the flames died out, the rays of the sun refracted through the building. It was as if a butterfly had emerged from its drab cocoon, brightening the world with its resplendent glory.

The staircase was still made of sandstone, except for the four corners of each layer which had been fused by the heat into a greenish glass. The pagoda was a pure transparent crystal.

A perfect blend of the ostentatious and the mundane.

Harmony in contradiction.

Centred on this magnificence, palatial constructions of sand emerged all over the ruins of the village.

Markets, roads, schools, hospitals… a flick of his wrist, a swish of his arm and they were there.

It was hypnotizing watching him work as he built up a settlement from scratch. A consummate display of power and finesse.

As she watched a new village… nay, a city, replace her homeland, a deep sense of confusion welled up within her.

He had callously trampled over the dignity of those who had paid in blood for the village and removed the spiritual repose, every Suna soldier held in his or heart as they went to battle, off the face of the earth.

Yet, he was replacing it with something better.

She couldn't decide whether or not to hate him for it.

No one who could make something so beautiful could be truly evil, could they?


	13. Chapter 13

Pakura walked through the sandstone archway that marked the entrance to the newly formed city along with the returning villagers.

The motif of a snake with nine claws, the antlers of a deer, the fleshy whiskers of a catfish and the mane of a lion was etched into the stone.

Each scale of the chimera glinted with a multi-coloured brilliance under the light of the sun.

It was apparently an azure dragon, or Qinglong if one went by the calligraphy on the apex of the archway.

If one looked closer, they would find that each scale had been filled with a glass of a different colour.

There was a total of four gates. One in each cardinal direction. The others had a tiger, a tortoise and a rose finch depicted on them in similar levels of detail.

The new city wall was square in shape and aligned perfectly with the square base of the central pagoda.

The city had been divided into four sectors via its diagonals:

The Azure Dragon sector was the residential area.

The White Tiger sector was the economic area.

The Rose Finch sector held all the schools and hospitals.

The Black Tortoise sector was for industries.

A 500-metre-wide belt had been left empty between the city walls and the sectors to facilitate military mobilization during sieges.

She walked through the residential complexes that had been arranged with both utility and aesthetics in mind as she watched shinobi from the logistics department scurry about apportioning the villagers' residences and shopfronts based upon the title deeds they carried.

She stopped her footsteps in front of a hollow, perforated pillar of transluscent glass, reminiscent of a flute. It was one of many that dotted the village.

Around it was a circular patch of open land, cordoned off by a fence made of waist-high, ornately carved stone pillars.

A variety of ochre rocks with reddish venations were artistically arranged within it, forming a rock garden.

She narrowed her eyes at the golden filigree on the pillar.

A similar filigree could be found on all such pillars as well as the central pagoda.

It was the handiwork of the fourth Kazekage with his golden sand in collaboration with the monster's power over flame.

The runes were similar to those on the city wall which maintained the new wind-based formation which manipulated the sandstorms outside the city into a natural barricade.

Her eyes widened in realization. That man was the source of the formation. Suna owed him another debt.

A complicated feeling welled up in her. A complicated mix of unwillingness and gratitude.

All he had to do was ask.

On a whim, he had interrupted the daily lives of all the residents of village and left them in a state of anxiety, cooped up within the shelters, for the three days and three nights he had spent on building the city.

In the confusion, many had prioritized their loved ones' safety or lost the deeds of their property and were now homeless.

He had done it, not out of malice, but just because he couldn't be bothered to inform them even a day ahead of time.

He had desecrated the graveyard.

Again, not due to malice but stemming from an indifference towards their sentimental attachments.

All he had to do was just ask.

Then again… maybe she was wrong to judge a God by the standards of mere men.

All that he had done had so far worked out positively.

But, from his manner, it was clear that, to him, the entirety of Suna was an interesting toy.

Sunagakure, one of the five great hidden villages, a plaything for a bored God.

The problem was, children often broke their toys.

The confusion slowly seeped out of her eyes as a cold determination took its place.

Taking out a shuriken, she once again studied the pillar.

It was similar to the pillars of sand, which had been the very first of his creations in the process of building the city.

Her intuition told her it was somehow important.

Flicking her wrist, she sent the projectile at the pillar with enough force to shatter it. Enough, that is, if it were a normal pillar of glass.

The golden runes flared and a thin membrane of light appeared on the pillar, deflecting the shuriken.

The air coagulated and the world drained of colour as a profound vision aimed at her.

It was as if she had awoken a slumbering monster and it was looking at her with displeasure.

She had experienced the oppression of a tailed beast before… it paled in comparison.

It was a struggle to keep herself from kneeling. She shivered, close beads of sweat seeping out on her forehead.

Then, just as suddenly as it had come, it disappeared.

She slowly straightened up, wiping the sweat away with quivering hands.

She was a ninja. She would endure.

She leaned against a wall, breathing deeply to regain her composure.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Inhale confidence. Exhale doubt.

The mantra repeated in her mind as she felt the tension and worries drain away.

After an interminable amount of time, she resumed her journey to the central pagoda, the new location of the Kazekage's office.

Her credentials were inspected at the bottom of the stairs before she was allowed up to the pagoda.

She paused before the gate to take in the sight of the building from up close.

It suffered from none of the problems you would expect a glass building to have.

The golden runes ensured its integrity as well as the privacy of its occupants.

The light seemed to distort within the glass, bringing out its beauty, at the same time, obscuring the sight of its interior.

Awed yet again by the prowess of the man, she stepped inside.

It felt like a new world.

From the interior, she had an unimpeded line of sight. The glass seemed to widen her field of vision, giving her a panoramic view of the entire city.

The sight of the tastefully arranged buildings made of sandstone in shades of ochre, grey and red, with highlights made of glass, took her breath away.

Her determination wavered for a moment before condensing. What he had given, he could take away.

Unless a method to restrain him could be found, he was too great of a threat to ignore.

She walked up the stairs to the ninth floor which housed the Kazekage's office.

She paused to arrange her face into a mask of indifference before entering the office.

Rasa looked up as she entered, "Ah yes… I've been waiting for you. There has been reports of increased troop movements at the Hidden Mist border and you are to reinforce the investigative squad there to prevent them from being wiped out. Time is of essence. You should leave within tomorrow."

Pakura accepted the mission scroll and with a salute, left the office.

A Kazekage who couldn't protect the dignity of the heroes who had died for his village wasn't a Kazekage worthy of respect.

She was sure this assignment was a ploy to keep her away from the village in order to reduce her influence and for Rasa to consolidate his own.

She didn't care. Support for her cause had been flagging anyway, what with the display of might and the beautiful city.

She exited the pagoda and leapt from roof to roof until she reached her quarters.

Packing swiftly for her trip, she shouldered her pack and made her way towards the city wall.

By the time she reached it, night had fallen.

On a whim, she walked up the wall to a vantage point and turned back to take in the nightscape.

The soft moonlight illuminated the pillars, which glowed silver under its baptism.

The light from the lamps lit by the city's populace was refracted and reflected between the glass highlights of the buildings until it seemed that the city was immersed in a multi-coloured fog.

It was a fairyland.

She ridiculed herself silently. Every glance at the new Suna weakened her resolve.

Maybe, leaving for some time was for the best.

Turning her head resolutely, she set out towards the Hidden Mist border.

At her speed, it took only a few minutes for the village to fade into the endless dunes that glowed silver under the moonlight.

She settled into a steady rhythm to conserve energy and let her mind wander.

One moment he wasn't there, the next moment, he was.

His amber eyes shone with a hypnotic light as they met hers.

The last thing she heard before her world went dark was:

"Girl, I have an agreement with your superiors. It seems you aren't very popular with them. But worry not, you'll be very popular with me. I'm sure a first generation kekkei genkai like you will make for a great test subject."


	14. Chapter 14

Pakura awoke restrained on a surgical table.

Her training kicked in and she feigned unconsciousness as she tried to get the rusty cogs in her head to rotate and ascertain her situation.

She had been stripped and masterfully strapped to the table in a way which prevented her from bringing her full strength to bear on her restraints.

Her muscles and chakra were lax and her mind seemed to be stuffed with cotton, probably the effect of some drug.

As the memories of her capture flowed back into her mind, she realized that she was a prisoner to the monster… no, its test piece.

And it was her compatriots who had sold her to him.

Forcefully depressing the heartbreak and the panic that was rising within her, she extended her senses to try and obtain information that might be helpful for her escape.

 _"… underestimated chakra. It isn't any worse than world vitality in grade. It just has different characteristics. Now, if I modify these runes here…"_

Near her, she could hear someone muttering in a foreign tongue. Her mind rapidly analysed the information, 'The entirety of the Elemental nations speaks the same language, except for the barbarians in the archipelago off the coast of the Land of Fire. When and how did they produce such an expert?'

Before she could think any further, she heard the voice again, _"Ah, there we go..."_ and a tingle permeated her body via the straps that kept her bound.

Her chakra grew turbulent and battered in her meridians, seeking release. The excruciating pain was too intense, even for her enhanced tolerance and she screamed.

Finally finding a drain port in her acupoints, the errant chakra gushed out of her, leaving her feeling empty and sore all over.

She gasped for breath on the table, drenched in sweat as she heard the voice muttering in an unemotional manner.

 _"So, the modified demon's bane formation does work on chakra… hmm… its function is just less violent in this case. Ordinarily, the meridians should have ruptured… is it due to the fact that chakra is generated by the body so it is less harmful to it and safer to use than world vitality? Needs more testing."_

Although the meaning of his words eluded her, she got the gist from his tone.

All of a sudden, the indignity of her situation crashed down upon her. Her eyes were bloodshot with suppressed agony as she turned her head to take in the sight of her captor.

He had tortured her, not for any information she was withholding from him, or even to sate his twisted desires. That, she could deal with. That, she had been trained to deal with.

Yet, being treated like an object for study, being dehumanized so thoroughly? She wasn't prepared for that.

Her gaze latched onto his form as he paced with his back to her, muttering under his breath. He was clad in a white medical apron with a few of his red and gold curls peeking out from under a medical cap.

She realized that they were in the subterranean medical facilities belonging to Lady Chiyo. Apparently, the underground structures had been left untouched by the reformation of the city.

How much did her fellow villagers have to hate her for them to not only sell her out to the monster but also provide the facilities for his experiments.

She had thought that she had finally overcome the stigma.

Recollections flashed through her drug and pain addled mind.

 _Her eleventh birthday… the happy talks and laughter of a family of three… blowing out the candles, wishing for a happier tomorrow… the flames growing instead of extinguishing… the explosion from her newly awakened bloodline… the two charred corpses… the funeral… the fear-filled gazes of the villagers… working her way up the ranks in the only profession where her lethality was a boon instead of a curse… the battle at the Iwa border… the reverential chants of her name… Pakura of the Scorch style, Hero of the Sand…_

Her life had been one of trials and tribulations. The fruits of her labour had been sweet. Her enjoyment of them had been too short.

She watched the monster turn back, his amber eyes sweeping over naked form dispassionately and settling on her restraints.

He approached her table and traced the intricate runes on the straps, muttering under his breath the entire time.

She was amazed that he hadn't even noticed that she was awake.

There she was a naked, restrained woman at his mercy and yet there wasn't even a flicker of lust in those glowing eyes. She might as well have been a doll.

He had taken away her freedom, her dignity, her entire life's achievements and now he had dealt a blow to her confidence as a woman.

It was too much. The potent cocktail of negative emotions amplified by the drugs in her bloodstream found an export in the form of a choking sob.

 _"Oh. Damn. She's awake. Stupid stopgap anaesthetics and stupid demon cultivators and their insane resilience. Should have known… what with the chakra system being so similar. Well, it's the middle of a desert after all… can't expect them to have everything. "_

The continued muttering irritated her and once the floodgates opened, they could hardly be stopped.

She used her tongue to prod at her molar in search of the poison pill to put her out of her misery, only to find it absent.

Her sobs intensified as she thrashed ineffectively within her bonds screaming all manner of abuse at him.

 _"Shit. I've never been good with crying women… shush girl… oh… you can't understand me, can you?_ How about now? Yeah… look its all the drugs messing with your brain. Just stop crying for a moment… I'll get better sedatives, I promise. I meant for you to be unconscious for the entire procedure. I don't really want hurt you… just study your bloodline and ability and then I'd even set you free. Your village obviously doesn't want you anymore… I can drop you off anywhere you'd like after the experiment… so, just don't cry, please?"

The very concept of the omnipotent God she had seen reshape Suna with a wave of his hand, getting flustered over a hysterical woman, was so absurd that she began to laugh hysterically through her tears.

"Damn. I think I broke her."

When she finally stopped, exhausted and panting for breath, the dejection in her eyes was gone, replaced with a blazing veneer of indignation coating the morass of her sorrows.

"You broke no one, monster." She spat out, sheer vitriol distorting her voice.

"We aren't your toys to manipulate as you will.

"We live!

"We breathe!

"We feel!

"Do you not think of us as human because you come from elsewhere?

"If so… cut me! See that we bleed the same red as you!

"There are mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters who are crying now because you were callous enough to desecrate the graves of their dear departed. There are men who have lost their life's savings just because you couldn't be bothered to inform them in advance before changing the city on a whim.

"Now you have the audacity to decide the rest of my life in just a few words! Who gave you that right?!

"Your strength? I refuse to believe that anyone capable of creating such beauty is a power-crazed lunatic.

"No… You haven't looked at us like living, breathing individuals from the start. We are objects in your eyes. Puppets for you to string along.

"I beg of you, open your eyes. See that we are human too.

"That I am human too. Not an object. Please… I can't… just 'sob' can't… take anymore…"

Lin Feng watched, stupefied as the woman succumbed to her exhaustion and the drugs in her bloodstream and fell asleep, her last words stretching into the deafening silence of the room.

He felt a fog of self-deception lift from his soul. His soul sutra revolved automatically as his Resolution Earth upgraded from the boundary of iron will to adamantium resolve.

The Grand Architectural Sect was a neutral influence. They offered their services to all, be they devil or sage. They only checked if the price was satisfactory. As its former hegemon, Lin Feng had interacted with many leaders of the devil faction. Any successful devil had forsaken anything but the most solipsistic, self-centred views of the universe in their quest for power. His actions since his arrival in this plane and his total disregard for the sentiments of the people of this world were consistent with their ideals.

The fact that he hadn't even known of the existence of the now destroyed graveyard hit him hard.

It had taken a woman, bound and powerless though she might have been, to scream some sense into him. She was the only one who had dared.

This world wasn't his treasure house, it was a home to millions.

His gaze went to the woman, taking in her dishevelled green and orange hair and her unclothed form.

Suddenly, feeling self-conscious, he turned around hurriedly and found a sheet to cover her with.

As the leader of a Sect, he hadn't been short of female company and had developed enough resistance to their charms… but… whenever he saw her, the image of her bloodshot brown eyes, fiery in their conviction and seething with a poorly suppressed sorrow, as she decried his behaviour came to his mind.

He placed a hand on his chest. His heart thumped in a manner it hadn't since his teenage years, a nameless anger at Suna, for discarding such a splendid individual so easily, rose within him.

The Enthusiasm Fire in his mind shifted to a deeper shade of red, losing its pinkish tinge.

Guided by instinct and emotion, he placed a palm on her forehead and with a mysterious fluctuation that seemed to touch a chord with the very world, a bond was formed.

Sobering, he staggered back from the sleeping woman as a deluge of negative emotions from her submerged him through the link. Even asleep, her nightmares chased her.

He stared dumbfoundedly at his palm and her forehead.

He had no idea what he had just done, or how it had happened but it seemed that he was linked to her in some manner.

He sighed as he rubbed his aching forehead, suppressing the link with his soul cultivation base.

She had just vilified him for trying to decide her life for her… yet, here he was, having formed a link, if he wasn't misreading this, to her very soul when she wasn't awake to share her opinion.

A smile quirked his lips.

At the very least, tomorrow would be interesting.


	15. Chapter 14-5

Lin Feng gazed at the full moon.

A single moon… unlike the twinned satellites back home.

He reclined on a bed of sand high above the newly built city of Suna as he did a bit of introspection.

The thing was: The Void is a lonely place.

No time, no space, no light, no darkness, no anything. A moment in it could feel like an eternity. An eternity, a moment. His stay in it after ascending to the Shattered Void realm had seemed like years to his mind.

To occupy himself, he had filled his head with architectural ideas. Concepts of what he might be able to build in the future with his enhanced capabilities.

After learning of Principles and Daos, the possibilities had expanded infinitely.

He had many fanciful thoughts of what he could build if he had the power to warp the fundamental principles on which the world worked. But knowing the difficulty of reaching the Grasping principles realm, he could only regretfully consign them to the distant future.

So, imagine his pleasant surprise when he had realised that in this low-level plane he had landed in, he not only had a shot at reaching the Grasping principles realm, he might very much reach the Dao seeking realm in a single bound.

Merging with Shukaku and gaining a basic control of the principles governing sand had only aggravated the situation.

It had made building several structures, that could only remain on the drawing board due to the unfeasible amounts of labour and materials required, suddenly very practical. And all this with just the basic level of mastery of the principle that allowed him to move sand without expending energy.

If he could fully master it… the possibilities were endless.

The very next day, he had received notice of the proximity of the four-tails and the first thing that had popped into his mind was a dust laden blueprint he had extracted from the box of blueprints his Master had left him upon his death.

That box was one of his most cherished possessions. He had tried to bring it with him but had lost it to the Void. In fact, if not for his efforts to protect it, he wouldn't have been as injured as he had when he came out onto the desert.

The blueprint depicted a glass pagoda one that in his home world was extremely inefficient to build, mainly due to the cost of glass.

But if he had the four-tails and with Shukaku already merged with him…

Basically, everything had fallen right into his lap.

He was like a poor man who had received a sudden windfall of wealth and gone crazy and blown it all at the brothel, partaking of wine and women, forgetting his wife and children who were waiting for him, dependant on his earnings.

In his case, the wife and children were his consideration for the people of Suna who he was uprooting from their homes upon a whim and without prior notice.

He cast his sensation over the room where the girl who had reminded him of it rested in a fitful slumber.

He waved his hand and a stream of sand began circling above him, morphing into various shapes.

He waved his other hand and the sand melted into glass. Pulling deeper on his powers, he called upon sands with different mineral compositions and as they too melted into glass, the minerals dyed it into various hues.

He lifted the swirling streams into the way of the moonlight and they shimmered with a multicoloured brilliance.

Such beauty with only two principles…

What if he had more? His heart grew fiery with ambition.

He had never been one to unceasingly seek for the next fight with a stronger opponent.

He had a post with the greatest amount of authority possible in his home plane handed to him at a very young age. He had always been content with the status quo. He had never had dreams of world domination.

Women had come and gone in his life but after an initial period of debauchery, he had settled down and found that any relationship based on his strength and authority was too shallow for him.

The only thing that he was truly passionate about was architecture. It was his reason for cultivation. He craved the satisfaction of turning dreams into reality.

Lin Feng: Architect of Dreams.

Yeah. It was a moniker he could grow to love.

But with his recent actions he had proven to himself that his self-control nosedived whenever it came to all things architecture.

He felt really guilty when he had exited the room after listening to the girl's spiel.

The very first thing he had done was visit Rasa and ask for a record of the names of the heroes on the Monument of Martyrs so he could recreate a fitting memorial for them so the Tutelary Gods wouldn't fade away.

He had been told that he had destroyed the document storage during the process of building the city. Upon further inquiry, he had caused heavy losses to the library and disrupted all professions by ruining their supplies.

The houses didn't have furniture, and several genin squads were on permanent salvage duty, trying to unearth remnants of Old Suna, so the villagers could claim them.

The more he heard, the worse he felt until he decided firmly:

He needed a public relations expert cum secretary who could ensure that the Architect of Dreams wouldn't become the Architect of Nightmares instead.

He recalled a pair of fiery brown eyes and smirked.

He knew the perfect candidate.

Although her village had sold her off to him for human experimentation… he blushed with shame upon recalling how diabolically he was behaving in his uncontrolled state… she was still officially on their rolls.

He stood up on the sandy platform. He had to meet Rasa and get her assigned on a compulsory mission to be his secretary.

That way, if she refused, she would be a missing nin and as a criminal, he'd have every right to capture her.

Even if she didn't want to after their rocky first meeting, she would have no choice in the matter.

He might be unwilling to delve into the black but morally grey was perfectly fine with him.

With a swirl of sand, he vanished.

One can only hope that Rasa isn't engaged in anything private at this time.


	16. Chapter 15

Scouting out the troop movements of the Kirigakure squad had been the easy part for the four-man team from Konoha. Specially with the Hyuga chunin leading it.

Getting the information back to the leaf camp bypassing the sentry posts of the Kiri ninja would be the hard part.

The setting sun shone down through the dense mangroves that defined the scenery of the Land of Waves, casting dappled shadows on the undergrowth.

Toshiro Hyuga activated his Byakugan and scanned their surroundings.

As his field of vision widened, colour bled out of his surroundings and the vegetation failed to impede his line of sight.

Finding no sign of life in the vicinity, he relaxed and deactivated his eyes. The bulging veins returned to normal and his eyes, to their usual pupil less white.

His three genin team-mates landed from the treetops as silently as their unpolished stealth skills would allow.

None of them were a day over ten, an outcome of the new war conscription policy and accelerated graduation programmes.

The flames of war were consuming lives faster than the villages could supplement them and so the young ninja… no, these children were sent to the front in the hopes that more of them would swim rather than sink.

It produced geniuses like Kakashi Hatake, the six-year-old chunin… and unmarked graves... lots of unmarked graves.

He gently caressed his forehead protector which concealed his caged bird seal. What exactly were they fighting for?

Pushing his melancholic thoughts to the back of his mind, he gave the orders to set up camp.

He observed his charges busy at work while he rested to restore the chakra he had consumed using his eyes.

The boy with the glasses, Ebisu, was textbook in his camp arrangements.

Shiranui Genma was calm and collected in his movements, setting up his sleeping area with a casual ease while chewing on a blade of grass.

A veritable bundle of enthusiasm in his viridian leotard, putting 120% effort into every task, was Might Guy. Toshiro couldn't help but admire him. Not everyone could get as far with his meagre amount of talent in ninjutsu and genjutsu.

They wolfed down their rations of dried meat and water before settling down for the night with him keeping the first watch.

The dusk gave way to the night, making the grove sparkle mystically in the starlight.

Toshiro leaned on a tree, activating his Byakugan every twenty minutes to prevent them from being caught off guard by an enemy.

He paced himself so that at any point in time, he would have more than half of his chakra available for combat.

When trouble comes, it generally brings its friends. In this instance, it brought six.

His Byakugan nearly popped out of his sockets when he detected seven huge sources of chakra coming in their general direction at breakneck speeds.

If one spoke of teams of seven shinobi with the power level he was reading off them, only one group came to mind: The Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.

Leaping to his feet, he kicked the three genin to wakefulness and quickly packed up their camp, erasing their traces as far as possible.

Racing against time, they sped from tree to tree, perpendicular to the swordsmen's path, hoping to avoid their sensation range and praying that whatever task they might have was urgent enough for them to avoid detours.

They were disappointed on both counts as Toshiro's next sweep with the Byakugan showed that their routes had changed to an interception course with their own.

Keeping his cool despite the building pressure, the Hyuga sent up a pattern of flares that would reveal the presence of the Seven Swordsmen in the area.

Now, they just had to stay ahead of the pursuit of the swordsmen long enough for leaf reinforcements to catch up to them.

A task which was much easier said than done.

A needle-like long sword pierced through the intervening trees and nearly gutted Genma. If not for the Hyuga's prior sensation of its path and prompt action of pushing him away, it would have pierced him.

Although they were temporarily safe, this manoeuvre had lost them their lead and the swordsmen were hot on their heels.

With another keening noise, the needle-like sword shot towards Ebisu, forcing Toshiro to protect him, shaving of precious metres off their lead.

Toshiro felt an aura of death hanging over them. Their situation was desperate.

Clenching his teeth, he stopped his advance, ordering his three juvenile charges to carry on without him.

Genma was calm, Ebisu seemed constipated and Guy was most exuberant in his protests. He took one last look at them, reiterated his order and turned and fired into the forest to bar the way of the swordsmen.

He hoped that the moments he bought for them would be enough.

He prayed that unlike him, they would live long enough to see the war end.

The veins around his eyes bulged and he saw them coming, seven humongous masses of chakra, one being extremely prominent, reaching levels comparable to tailed-beasts while the others were the level of elite jonin.

The kunai in his hand shivered as he pasted dozens of paper bombs all over his body and hid them with a transformation jutsu.

Just as the swordsmen emerged from the thickets, with a primal scream, he plunged into their midst.

…

Genma, Ebisu and Guy were rapidly traversing the forest, angling closer to the Konoha camp, when the sound of a huge explosion behind them caused them pause.

Grief and indignation filled them as they realized the source of the explosion. Clenching their teeth, they sped up even more, squeezing every drop of their potential in order to make the sacrifice of their comrade meaningful.

Genma still held onto his façade of calm but his fists, clenched hard enough to draw blood, spoke a tale of internal turmoil.

Ebisu's face was frozen in a terrified rictus. As the physically weakest among them, he was finding it difficult to keep up.

Guy had tears streaming down his face unchecked as he threw himself into the rhythm of the run, trying to drown out the insidious thoughts that told him that he had traded his continued existence with the life of a comrade.

He ran faster and faster, his monstrous constitution causing him to take the lead.

When he was snapped out of his fugue state by a scalding heat on his chest, he realized that he had almost run out of the line of sight of his team.

Mortified by his near desertion, he waited for them to catch up while inspecting the pendant on his chest which was emitting heat.

His father had given it to him on his birthday as a lucky charm. It had never behaved so strangely before.

The heat grew stronger and stronger until with a sharp crack, the porcelain pendant shattered and almost at the same time, his father and his team both emerged from the thickets.

Everyone gawked at each other for an instant before with a tacit understanding, all four of them set out at full speed along the route Guy's father, Might Duy, had come.

As they ran, Duy explained his appearance here.

Being a genin, he was patrolling the camp perimeter when the flares went up, informing them of the seven swordsmen's presence.

Worried about Guy, who was scheduled to return from his duty around the current time, he had used a single use locator talisman, the pendant, and rushed to his aid.

He had thought that a different squad was being chased down by the swordsmen while Guy's squad was hiding somewhere. He had planned to find them with the talisman and show them the road to the camp, helping them pass back safely.

How could he have known that they were the ones being chased and their chunin comrade had already sacrificed himself to win time for them.

After running a distance, Duy suddenly stopped and turned around to face the direction he could hear the swordsmen coming from.

The three genin ran for a distance before Guy realized the discrepancy. He turned around fiercely.

Sure enough, he saw Duy's broad back as he waited preparing to meet the last enemies of his life.

Anxious, Guy ran up to him and tried to drag him back towards the camp. "You're only a genin… leave the fighting to the higher ups."

It was as if the man had taken root in the soil. Guy couldn't move him even an inch.

Duy turned to him and spoke in a soft tone, "Son, today I will unlock the eight gates. A day will come when you have to protect the warmth behind you and your strength will not be enough. That day, you too will open the eight gates. So, live on my son. Live on and find that warmth worth igniting your youth for. Don't cry. This is the happiest moment of my life."

With a gentle push, Duy pushed his son back on the path towards the Konoha camp. Guy took one reluctant step after the other away from his father, speeding up until the trees blurred in his eyes, both due to his speed and his unshed tears.

…

As the dramatic tale of bravery and sacrifice was unfolding in the mangroves, high above them sitting on a platform of sand were a man and a woman.

The man wore a long white robe while the woman was attired in a backless and sleeveless black dress, with slits on both sides of the waist for increased mobility.

They were both keeping watch over a miniature of the area formed out of sand. Seven tiny figures made of sand could be seen advancing towards one figure that stood between them and the three fleeing figures.

The movements of the figures were accurate reproductions, based on the information being fed to them from several covert eyeballs of sand spread over the area.

"What do you want the seven swords for?" Pakura asked.

Lin Feng replied, "The same reason I've been collecting anything which has something remotely special about it. While most of them are duds, some of them contain fragments of the Will of the World. Those are important for me."

"So, these seven swords are likely to have Will fragments?"

"Almost definitely. That living sword, Samehada, has a fragment large enough to grant it a modicum of sentience. The others have fragments too… but smaller."

"You can teleport, right? Then why didn't you just attack them one by one while they were in Kirigakure?"

"I couldn't. There is a spatial blockade over the entire village. There was nothing like that in Suna. This means that there is either a Shattered Void realm expert in Kiri or, more likely, a Void level sealing formation. My cultivation needs to enhance for me to be able to bypass it."

"Then, what are you waiting for? Do you want them to kill those genin before you take action?"

"Yes. The higher the contradictory degree between Konoha and Kiri, the more benefits Suna can reap. Thus, the easier it becomes to win the war. What? Your compassion won't be in a flood for even our enemies, now, will it? Are you going to tell me how human they are?" He teased.

"Just stop bringing that episode up. Its already been a month. I was hopped up on soporifics and had just experienced a betrayal from the village I had dedicated my life to serve. I'd say I had a right to rant at someone who was using me as a test piece." She retorted.

"Yeah. I apologized, didn't I? Don't forget, you're still my test piece. I've kept my end of the deal and managed Suna as if it were truly my territory, rather than some place to toss about on a whim."

"Alright. Alright. I heard you the hundredth time. Speaking of test piece, any results from the samples you've been taking from every part of my body?"

"Yes. Some. Firstly, the fragment is closely associated with every part of your body and soul. So, extracting it is not only beyond the current me, I fear that before Grasping Principles realm, I won't have any progress in that direction.

"Secondly, there are some differences between you and the ocular kekkei genkai holders from Konoha. From what I gleaned from studying the captive Hyuga clan member, their powers come from the invader and not the Will of the World. Also, their principle fragments are concentrated in their eyes and soul.

"Again, extraction of the principles will require a higher realm."

"Hmm… Ok. It seems to be a long-term proposition. At least something has come from the embarrassing things you make me do. If a month ago someone told me I'd willingly let someone study my excrement, I'd turn them into a scorched husk."

"Well, you did try that on me, the first time I asked. Thankfully I was immune due to the four-tails' power."

"Tch. Unfair matchups." she muttered darkly under her breath.

"What did you say?"

She hastily shifted the topic. "Ahem. Then, right now? How are you going to frame the disappearance of the seven swordsmen on the Leaf village?"

His amber eyes shone with the light of mischief.

"Sit back, relax and watch a master at his game. I wasn't the hegemon of a Grand tier sect for nothing."


	17. Chapter 16

The cool night breeze whistled through the mangrove, ruffling Duy's hair.

He looked up to the sky, barely visible through the dense canopy. It was a full moon tonight.

The wind stagnated around him as a formless aura gushed out of him, causing his standard genin uniform to flutter.

The inhuman training… enduring the jeers, the mocking, the ostracization… it had all been for this day.

If he had any regrets, it would be being unable to see her one last time.

Unable to circulate chakra due to his non-existent meridians, he had always been seen as a disabled person.

As a child rescued from the smouldering ruins of his village at the tail end of the First Shinobi World War and brought to Konoha, the greatest ninja village, it should have been a charming tale of turning misfortune into a blessing.

In reality, it was the start of his nightmare.

Eager to repay the village which had taken him in and his benefactor who had brought him to it, he had enrolled himself for the Shinobi training course.

The initial testing had brought his deficiencies to light.

He had been 'politely' advised to aspire towards a different profession.

The headstrong child that he was, he had ignored their deterrence and thrown himself into the physical training required to master taijutsu, the only branch of services one didn't need active chakra flow for.

Lacking a repository in the form of a dantian, his chakra overspread his entire body. This made him eminently suitable for practising the physical art which involved infusing the body with chakra to strengthen it.

The problem was, it was the only thing he could practise. Ninjutsu or genjutsu were beyond him.

The lack of circulating chakra also left him vulnerable to genjutsu.

Overall, he had too many glaring weaknesses for his excellence at the least popular of ninja arts to make him viable as an operating shinobi.

When the news of his benefactor's demise at the hands of a Kiri squad had reached him, the flames of his desire for strength had burnt even more prosperously.

Refusing to relinquish hope and in search of more efficient methods of turning his efforts into strength, he had turned to the library.

In a village dedicated to churning out as many killers as possible, the first floor of the library, containing the basics of chakra utilization and cultivation had been de-archived to the public.

In the dustiest corner of the most unpopular shelf containing taijutsu scrolls, he had come across the technique which had given him hope.

An unabridged version of the basic technique that allowed a shinobi to rid himself of his limiters.

Considered too tedious and time-consuming to be practised to its completion for anyone who would get better returns by investing the time on ninjutsu or genjutsu, it was a technique that traded one's lifespan for an instantaneous boost in physical power.

Insane amounts of body tempering were required in order to withstand said boosts.

For a person of his circumstances, it was the only choice.

Yet, due to it being a technique that had extremely serious repercussions for each use, he couldn't reveal it as one of his capabilities to the village. Thus, he had been stuck at his rank of genin for his entire career.

'The Eternal Genin' was what they had mockingly dubbed him.

It was when he was training to extend his duration with the gates that he had met her.

She was a trainee genin, led astray in her search for an empty training ground.

His dedication and training intensity had attracted her and one thing led to the other and they were married soon after despite strong opposition from her parents.

In a village which laid great emphasis on eugenics and faced population shortage due to the perpetual wars, all strong ninja were encouraged to be as profligate as possible.

Women were indoctrinated with the concept that it was their duty to breed with the strongest men they could, as many times as they could and to invest their children into the war machine that was the Konoha Shinobi Forces.

There was even a provision where male ninja ranked chunin and above, without clans or bloodlines that were under the control of any families, were under an obligation to visit the brothel at least once a week.

The fact that Duy had been banned from visiting it spoke volumes about the discrimination. Not that he would have with the tigress at home.

Having retired after marriage, she faced the taunts and disparaging of her fellow villagers for marrying a disabled man such as him.

The relations with her parents had grown rocky. Yet, she supported him with heart and soul. It was because of her that he had the motivation to endure the gruelling training required to open the eight gates.

Things came to a head when Guy was born with malformed meridians. It was the first time she had cried in regret of their marriage.

That night, he had told her about his opening of the eight gates and the consequences of their use. She had cried harder knowing the depths of his sufferings in the pursuit of power.

The next morning, when her mother had come on a punitive expedition with 'I told you so' written all over her face, she had met her with a smile on her face.

It was time to repay her for making her endure the taunts of the villagers for all these years.

Come morning, she would be the widow of a martyr… the widow of a Hero of the Leaf.

All ninja burnt their candles at both ends. He was a firecracker, doomed to obscurity till his time came.

When it did, he would outshine them all.

He took in a deep breath, his powerful lungs inciting eddies in the air around him.

His time was now.


	18. Chapter 17

Duy exhaled, a shockwave spreading out from him, blowing the trees leaning this way and that.

He stepped forward, the coating of chakra on his foot spreading his weight over a large area, preventing him from sinking into the marshy ground.

Something eminently simple for someone trained to walk on water.

The muscles like corded steel in his thigh flexed, propelling him explosively forwards, leaving a slowly recovering bowl shaped depression in his wake.

Gate of Opening… OPEN!

An electric current originating at a point in his brain spread all over his nervous system, unlocking his natural limiters, making the full power of his honed body available for use.

His other foot fell on the ground, pushing him off even harder, the marshy ground rippling from the impact.

Gate of Healing… OPEN!

Another point in his brain was flushed by his chakra, flooding his body with a cocktail of adrenaline and other stimulating hormones, rejuvenating his body and forcibly making him perform at the peak of his capabilities.

The air wave and ripples from the impact of his foot on the ground shattered the undergrowth around him as he sped up even further.

Gate of Life… OPEN!

His chakra flushed a point on the tip of his spinal cord, causing his heart to beat with greater vigour, the increased blood flow turning his skin red.

His form blurred as the air, compressed to the extreme by the speed of his tread, solidified enough for him to walk on it. The shockwave from his passing uprooted several thin saplings.

Gate of Pain… OPEN!

The chakra flushed a point further down the spinal cord, shutting down his body's sensation of pain, allowing to use strength beyond his limits, causing his muscles to tear.

Gate of Limit… OPEN!

A node in his abdomen lit up as his chakra dashed it. Massive amounts of chakra upwelled from it as it tapped into his life force to fuel his inhuman strength.

Each step left shattered wood and uprooted trees behind as chakra overflowed from him, covering him like a protective hood, shielding him from the strong winds. Moments after his passing, an explosive pop sounded, indicative of his exceeding the speed of sound.

Gate of View… OPEN!

His field of view expanded as he emerged in an area where the forest was relatively sparse. Seven eclectic figures mapped into his view.

He backfisted the foremost swordsman, a lanky man with a needle-thin sword – Nuibari, with his left hand as he passed by.

The friction between the air and the fist lit sparks as it crashed into his skull shattering it on contact.

With another sonic boom, he advanced into their midst, the air wave blowing the headless corpse away.

A heavyset man with a bandaged double-handed sword – Hiramekarei, stood in his way. The man lived up to his fame, reacting promptly to the threat by brandishing the sword at him, releasing its chakra reserves and activating the barrier of chakra.

Gate of Wonder… OPEN!

All of his muscle fibres began to tear as the load on them exceeded their capacity. The heat from his body vaporized his sweat mixed with the detritus from rapidly decomposing cells, lending him a green aura.

His right fist smashed into the chakra barrier and it popped like a soap bubble from the impact. The fist expanded in the fearful vision of the swordsman, smashing into his face and vaporizing his head into a mist of blood. A fitting end to one from the village hidden in the mist.

A web of lightning deadlocked him the moment he stagnated after dispatching his opponent. A giant of a man carrying a scroll full of explosive tags lined up behind a blade- the blast-sword Shibuki, moved with a speed belying his stature as he chopped down on the trapped Duy.

Duy's right hand continued the arc from his lethal fist and jabbed his thumb into his heart, activating the eighth gate.

Gate of Death… OPEN!

All his lifeforce immediately turned into energy that caused his blood to boil within his veins, turning into a steam of blood that surrounded him.

The very space around him twisted as the extreme concentrations of physical energy warped the fabric of reality.

The lightning skittered harmlessly off the warped space while the chained explosions of the Shibuki fizzled out within the turbulence.

Duy squatted in the horse stance, gathered his fists together and punched out in two directions at once.

The space around his fists fissured, offering glimpses of the Void as two columns of pure Void Force beamed out in two directions, distorting the trim space in their wake.

The lower body of the swordsman wielding Shibuki turned into a bloody mist as the one responsible for the net of lightning, the wielder of the twin swords – Kiba, had a gaping hole in his chest.

Unable to bear the load, the bones in his hands shattered, leaving them limp by his sides.

With a stomp that caused the land for nearly a mile to subside and a shockwave that turned the surrounding forest into woodchips, he sacrificed his left leg to shatter the Void and emerge right in front of the leader of the swordsmen, the wielder of Samehada, who kept it off before himself.

His right leg smashed into the living sword, shattering both the bones of his limbs and his opponent's ribs as the transmitted impact sent him flying, unsure of life and death.

The bloody steam stopped proliferating from the shattered body of Duy, leaving behind a charred figure slowly moving towards the end of his life.

The two other swordsmen, the wielders of the Helmet Splitter and the Executioner's Blade had been severely damaged internally from the prior shockwave and were escaping from the approaching Konoha pursuit while bleeding from their ears, noses and eyes.

Duy's vision went dark as the last strands of his vitality left him. In his final moment, tendrils of sand reached out of the bottom of the ground, wrapping his charred corpse, eroding it away into decency.

In the profound darkness, the memories of his entire life played out as if projected from a revolving lantern.

The endless training, the tender moments with his wife, the birth of his son and his final battle.

His last thought as the darkness took him was: _'Wife, son… it seems in the end… I wasn't such an embarrassment after all.'_

…

On top of the sand platform, Lin Feng opened his eyes, having experienced his last moments alongside him.

He saluted towards the crater respectfully, sending off the warrior and thanking him for his techniques… unknowingly taken.


	19. Chapter 18

Keeping track of the fleeing swordsmen, Lin Feng opened his mouth, "There is a popular anecdote about a Young Master born without meridians that has been circulating for a long time back in my world.

"His clan ostracized him, the masses ridiculed him, his fiancé decided at birth due to an agreement between their grandfathers chose to break their engagement in favour of another and shame him publicly.

"Driven beyond the limits of forbearance, the boy left home with an ultimatum of returning three years later to retrieve his honour.

"Irked by his audacity, the prince who had settled upon his fiancé's beauty set the date of their marriage on the date of his proposed return."

Pakura, who had recovered from her shock at the display of power by the supposed genin, asked curiously, "Did he return in time?"

"Oh yes. He returned just as they were getting married. We have a custom where just before the final nuptial vows, the male has to challenge the gathering for opposition to the marriage.

"If no one challenges him, then it is implied that they approve of it and thus are obligated to protect its integrity from encroachment in the future.

"It is basically a formality as all the attendees are invited by the ones getting married.

"Yet, this time there was an objection raised. The Young Master, after gruelling training under a mysterious faction for three whole years, had returned to reclaim his dignity and cut the emotional knot in his heart.

"Dismissive of his prowess, convinced of his status as a 'waste', and filled with murderous intention due to his interruption of the wedding, the prince acceded to this challenge.

"As a Communing with the Heavens realm cultivator, everyone was confident of his victory. So, their shock could be imagined when he was knocked unconscious with a single strike within moments of his putting his foot on the stage."

"He must have trained his internal energy for such an intrepid rate of growth… moreover, to overcome the sensation of you mages and breaking through the passive barriers of world vitality you have… it had to be some sort of taijutsu practise… most likely some eruption class skill. Right?" analysed Pakura.

"Probably." He shrugged noncommittally. "It's just an anecdote… I have no idea of its authenticity, let alone the fine details. But, what is more impressive is what happened later.

"The fathers of the marital couple weren't happy at this event and as peak Essence qi realm demonic cultivators with liquefied world vitality filling their meridians, they took matters into their own hands."

"Did the mysterious organization behind him act to safeguard him?"

"Hah. Wishful thinking. They had trained him in an experimental technique much like the one used by that Konoha genin. He used up his life force resisting the attacks of both of them, heavily injuring them in the process.

"Their enemies, including the boy's clan quickly stepped into the power vacuum and within days, they had to flee their holdings which were carved up by the invading forces.

"So, in the end, the boy did get his vengeance, albeit at the cost of his life."

"What happened to the girl?"

Lin Feng shrugged, "Who knows? The story ends here. The reason I brought it up was to illustrate how similar the technique used by the Konoha genin was to the Body Tempering Sect's experimental technique."

"Wait… the boy in the story didn't have meridians but his acupoints were still there… so, why didn't he just cultivate into a Mage?"

"Only those with the highest sensitivity to world vitality make any significant progress down the path of Heavenly Communion. The Demonic Path is more mainstream.

"In return, the Demonic Path warriors consume their painstakingly collected world vitality during each fight, backing up their cultivation unlike Mages who have unlimited supplies of ammunition at their fingertips."

"What's this about Body Tempering then? How does that help him? Wasn't it a technique for Demonic cultivators to increase the tenacity of their bodies to hold more qi without exploding."

"Demonic cultivators temper their meridians and dantian rather than their body. Their bodies are stronger than that of a Mage due to this but only marginally, given that Mages too are tempered by the constant flow of energy through them.

"You have to understand that internal energy practice in my homeland isn't as developed as the system of chakra. There people only practise the physical portion of it… in your words the yang chakra, while the spiritual portion is locked away in the soul during soul cultivation.

"This leads to an unbalanced energy which is only good for physical enhancement and has none of the bells and whistles of chakra or world vitality.

"Body Tempering is what the path of internal energy cultivation is called in our world.

"It involves using the yang chakra to refine and strengthen one's body, while using the strengthened body to perform exercises beyond its current limits, hence improving the body and by extension the quantity of yang chakra, setting up a positive cycle.

"Due to a lack of spiritual energy, techniques such as ninjutsu or genjutsu would be impossible to perform with this energy. Thus, skill in feat of arms and martial techniques become important.

"Chakra is yin-yang balanced, bringing it up to par with world vitality. It benefits in that it is a personal energy, thus, much easier to control than world vitality.

"It falls leeward in that it has a much lower effect on the world than world vitality, which logically has more influence on the fabric of reality due to their common origin from the Will of the World.

"Basically, techniques using world vitality are stronger than those released employing chakra while the latter is easier to control.

"The intruder, by burying all records of soul cultivation and removing the sensitivity to world vitality, forced your people to walk down the path of internal cultivation much farther than anyone believes possible in my home world.

"Initially, I thought that your souls were weak due to a lack of focus on cultivating it… upon further investigation, I realized it was just a misconception… they are just diffuse.

"Without a mindscape or a nascent divinity, you cannot leverage the yin chakra inherent within you for soul combat or for gaining a sensibility of principles."

"Hmm… so that was why my chakra was getting weaker after cultivating according to the soul sutra you gave me. It was separating out and condensing my yin chakra into a nascent divinity?" asked Pakura.

"Yes. That's why I told you to stop after creating your mindscape… the contradiction between the two systems needs to be solved."

"Okay. How is any of this useful to us and how was the genin able to obtain such powerful strength?"

"I'm coming to that. When I was the hegemon of my sect, the leader of a Body Tempering Sect came to us to commission a building.

"Generally speaking, I wouldn't bother with a second-grade sect like his, letting a subordinate deal with him… but, that day I was free so I met with him.

"The final price was more than he could afford so he bartered in a secret technique of his sect. An eruption class skill called Berserk technique.

"Now that I have a clear reference, I know that it was just a method to open the Gate of Life and the Gate of Pain using the yang chakra.

"It increased the blood flow, turning the skin red and numbed the sensation of pain, multiplying the physical strength of the user.

"From what I have conjectured, the eruption class techniques of the body tempering school all involve opening the Gates but lacking the yin chakra to open the two gates in the brain, the Gate of Opening and the Gate of Healing, they aren't able to extract the same amount of power as the genin did."

Pakura frowned, "That's all fine… but there is a limit to the energy in the human body… even if we consider that the entirety of the body's potential is being released at once, it doesn't explain the inhuman leap in power from the seventh gate to the eighth gate."

"Even I was shocked by his eruption until he used Void Force and I figured out what was going on.

"He basically used the strength of his mortal body to fracture space and enter the Shattered Void realm.

"As inconceivable as that is, what he did next was even more incredible… he sacrificed the nascent Void Force he got from his breakthrough for a temporary boost in power."

"You've mentioned this nascent Void Force before… what exactly is it?" asked Pakura.

"Well, whenever anyone breaks through to the Shattered Void realm, they contact the Void for the first time.

"Our minds aren't prepared for the total Nothingness that is the Void and as such, we are much closer to its source and can draw upon the purest of energies that lie within it.

"This energy is the nascent Void Force.

"Our minds then start analogizing the Void to some sort of imagery it can comprehend… say, for example an extremely dark cave.

"But that, becomes a hindrance between us and the source of the Void, reducing the purity of the Void Force that we can draw upon.

"The final goal of all Shattered Void cultivators is to reach a deep enough understanding of the Void to regain access to the nascent Void Force."

"Then do the planes and World Wills attach so much importance to it because it helps them promote the purity of the Void Force they can absorb?"

"Intelligent!" Lin Feng acclaimed.

"The stability of a plane is directly proportional to the quality of the Void Force generated by the governing Will. The process is similar to seeding used in hydrometallurgy… high purity Void Force samples cause the Void Force to separate out from the impurities present in the low-quality energy absorbed by the Will, speeding up its progression to the next stage as well as providing a reference for it to better understand the mysteries of the Void, hence improving the purity of the energy absorbed."

Pakura was suddenly enlightened, "So that's why the genin was able to use the Void Force so much better than you and use it to attack directly, he was using a higher purity of it."

"Yeah… also… just like world vitality nourishes our body as we use it, Void Force too baptizes our body, making it more… _real…_ for the lack of a better term.

"Our body becomes harder to destroy and gains a resistance to principle class attacks.

"Do you know why our lifespans are fixed at birth?

"Its because cell replication isn't perfect… every time a cell divides, there is some loss in the genetic code due to inaccurate replication.

"If these inaccuracies occurred in important genes, we would mutate or suffer from genetic diseases. So, there are stretches of useless genetic material attached to the DNA called telomeres which are sacrificed instead.

"They act like a buffer and when the number of cell divisions are enough to deplete the entirety of the telomeres, the important genes start getting affected and cause cell mutation or failure… leading to death.

"The length of these telomeres, the accuracy of DNA replication and the frequency of cell division give us the lifespan.

"Chakra increases the rate of replication as it overdraws the potential of cells… this reduces lifespan.

"World Vitality reduces the rate of replication as it is an external energy, thus, reducing the body's energy demand from its own cells.

"Void Force makes each cell more _real_ … it works almost like a principle and improves the accuracy of DNA replication, thus, extending the lifespan by several times. The higher the purity, the better the effect.

"Thus, he had several times more lifeforce to burn after his baptism with the nascent Void Force.

"That's the secret to this Eight Gates Released Formation technique."

…

While they were talking, Lin Feng hadn't forgotten to keep tabs on the situation on the ground.

The Konoha ninja had caught up and were inspecting the scene of carnage with great shock while the accomplished trackers among them were pursuing the two swordsmen who had run off in separate directions, true to the Kiri ideology of mistrusting one's allies.

Judging that it was the time to act, Lin Feng turned to Pakura, "You know what to do, don't you?"

She grinned while pulling on a Konoha forehead protector around her neck like a choker. "Leave it to me."

He wrapped her in Void Force and with a slight pop, she was gone.

Finally, alone on the platform, he focused fully on the task he had been struggling with during their talk.

Samehada was being difficult. It was time to show the naughty little shark who was the boss.


	20. Chapter 19

Moving our vision aside from our Hero who is currently engaged in a tussle of wills with the sentient sword, Samehada, let us turn to his home land.

Cultivation civilizations, of which our Hero's plane is a prime example, are the birthplace of Gods and Ghosts.

Unlike the Atheistic trend popular in most Scientific civilizations, belief in the Divine is a lot more common in the land of cultivators because their Gods are real… not just abstract concepts.

The Will of the Heavens being what it is: an agglomeration of the thoughts and beliefs of all sentient creatures on the plane, encourages the development of similar, yet smaller and more specialized agglomerations of wills so it can delegate its task of regulating the world.

Thus, we have Gods, who are basically subroutines of the World Will. Speaking of Gods, depending on their origin, they can be divided into Land Gods and Tutelary Gods.

Land Gods, as their name suggests are formed from the collaborative will of the sentient population of an area.

For example, years of worship from villagers praying for bountiful crop, timely rains and healthy children can turn the object of their worship, be it a tree or an interestingly shaped stone, into a God of the Land.

Henceforth, the area surrounding it becomes its domain and it blesses its followers by increasing the concentration of world vitality in that area, regulating the weather patterns in a manner favourable to crops and minimizing occurrence and adverse effects of disasters.

All it seeks in return is the prayers of its followers, ensuring its existence and growth.

As it develops, it gains its own sentience and enters into a symbiotic relationship with its followers, competing against other Gods for their following.

Not only villages, but also kingdoms and sects develop their own patron Land Gods.

These patron Gods can be anything, ranging from weapons and animals to the Rulers themselves.

In case of weapons, they are known as Divine weapons and due their sentient nature, are often a part of inheritance rituals where only the candidate acknowledged by it is allowed to ascend the throne.

God-kings come about when the rulers of the kingdoms decide to further consolidate their power by starting a religion among their subjects with themselves as the focus. While this may be advantageous in terms of centralizing power… it has the disadvantage of converting the king into a puppet of public opinion.

Due to the merger with what is essentially a manifestation of the will of the people, the God-king can only release policies that have the approval of the masses. While this ensures the establishment of a benevolent dictatorship… the inertia inherent to public opinion means that the policy-making will be conservative, causing the development of the kingdom to stagnate.

Thus, most young empires with aggressive expansionist policies implement a dual government based upon the coordination of both the aristocratic and theocratic facets. It is the older and more mature empires that seek the stability offered by deified rule.

As for the Grand Architectural Sect… it is guarded by four divine beasts: the azure dragon, white tiger, rose finch and the black tortoise.

All Gods have special abilities and if they are living beings prior to ascension, they enjoy an extended lifespan.

Case in point, the evolution of a common python into a fearsome beast renown far and wide as the Azure Dragon.

These Divinities are also known as Destiny Emblems or Destiny Suppressing Emblems due to the fact that the more prosperous a kingdom, the stronger its Divinity becomes, thereby providing denser world vitality to the kingdom as well as greater security.

Looking at it from a fundamental perspective, the separation between spiritual and real are much less defined for cultivation civilizations rather than scientific ones, allowing for thoughts, intent and will to directly alter reality… sometimes using the crutch of biological energies like chakra or world vitality.

In return, mechanical energies like chemical reactions are severely weakened… more accurately, they are tied to the biological energies, dispersing most of their yield as harmless world vitality. Thus, gunpowder is not very useful in cultivation worlds.

So, what others think of you becomes very important for cultivators. For example, if you are very famous or hold an important post in a famous organization, you will experience a massive boost in the progressive speed of your soul cultivation.

The reason Lin Feng reached such high levels of soul cultivation at such a young age was largely due to the accelerated growth rate during his tenure as the sect hegemon.

Similarly, infamy or resentment also boosts soul cultivation. As negative emotions are generally stronger, the boost is more significant.

Now you may think that this is quite unfair… and truly, devil cultivators progress much faster in their initial stages of soul cultivation but as they say Heaven has eyes.

There is a popular fable that has been doing the rounds of the bars and watering holes of the world. A cautionary tale about a mythical creature known as 'Chinese Xianxia Protagonist', who walks about slaughtering clans and raping women.

In this fable, the creature is often hit by lightning as he repeatedly tries to defy the Heavens.

The moral of the tale being: 'Sin and lightning shall smite you.'

While not as exaggerated as the eighty-one rounds of successive lightning strikes from the tale, if the resentment towards a person reaches a certain threshold, it will bring them to the attention of the Heavens, initiating a bombardment of lightning known as a heavenly tribulation.

The mortality rates of such tribulations can go as high as ninety percent.

Also, sins as well as one's merits affect one's afterlife.

Yes. Afterlife. Unlike scientific civilizations where people die when they are killed, death is a little less permanent for cultivation civilizations.

Spirit world, Dreamland, Ghostdom… these are but a few of the names with which the spiritual plane is referred to.

When someone dies, their soul is reborn in the Ghostdom as a ghost. This is the time when one's merits and sins are reckoned up.

The sins accumulated during one's lifetime and the resentment one is encumbered by, transforms into the Fire of Karma and sears the soul.

This is referred to as the Fire Tribulation.

Even if one can somehow insist through it, their soul is sure to be grievously injured. Memory loss, loss of emotions or any other spiritual ailment are the usual consequences of such tribulations.

That is, if one isn't deducted to ash within the tribulation first.

The merit on the other hand transforms into the Light of Karmic Virtue and strengthens one's soul and helps one resist the slow corrosion of the Ghostdom.

There are a group of ascetics and monks whose entire order revolves around accumulating merit during one's life and trying to generate enough Light of Karmic Virtue to allow them to break out of the mortal coil and reach Nirvana or Moksha, that is, combining with the Will of the World directly.

As mentioned before, the Spirit world is corrosive to the souls of ghosts and the only means of prolonging one's afterlife is through the protection of the Light of Karmic Virtue or through the supplement to their soul via prayers and remembrances of the living.

Thus, ancestor worship is a big thing in all cultivation clans and everyone regularly burns incense to their departed relatives in the hopes that they can persist long enough in the Ghostdom to earn enough merit for reincarnation.

In fact, if the number and intensity of the prayers are enough, the ghost can evolve into a God of the Spirit world, a Tutelary God.

Tutelary Gods can open Pure lands in the Ghostdom where ordinary ghosts can take shelter from the corrosive atmosphere. This not only allows them to shelter the ghosts of those related to them, but also the act is considered a meritorious one and Light of Karmic Virtue can be earned.

This Karmic Virtue, which is required for reincarnation, can be apportioned to the ghosts under the Tutelary God's command in return for their services in culling the population of monsters - eldritch abominations originating from the nightmares of the living and fantastical beasts and humanoid races born of their imagination.

The Spirit World is a very strange plane which is basically a representation of the real world as seen through the perception of sentients.

Thus, an uninhabited area would appear as a dense fog in the Spirit World while the capital of a populous kingdom would be highly detailed due to the large number of confirmatory sentient perspectives.

Destroying a building in the spirit world would result in it returning to its original state as long as the real building still exists.

Similarly, the destruction of something real will not result in the destruction of its spiritual counterpart unless confirmed by enough sentients.

For example, if the fountain in the middle of the town square of a populous town is demolished, it will take several days for its counterpart in the spirit world to dissipate as all people who saw it there once will still subconsciously be thinking that it is still there unless they have visited the town square and seen it for themselves.

Similarly, temporary constructs will appear ethereal in the spirit world due to the shallowness of the impression people have of it being there.

Reincarnation is an iffy business. Attempting it without sufficient Karmic Virtue will result in most of one's memories being lost… basically terminating one's existence.

Even if the reincarnation is successful with the soul intact, the limitations of an infantile mind can result in the deterioration of the soul, resulting in them never awakening the memories of their previous lifetime.

Only when they return to the Ghostdom do they remember it all. This is what happens most of the time.

In rare cases, such as that of High Monks, they are reborn with all their memories intact and self-aware from birth due to their vast accumulation of Karmic Virtue.

Thus, they cycle through life after life to accumulate enough merit to transcend this circle of birth and death and reach Enlightenment, merging with the World Will.

Monsters, through engulfing ghosts with Karmic Virtue can gain a chance to be born into the real world too.

By dint of the differences in their souls, they are born into the bodies of beasts, resulting in intelligent animals capable of cultivation.

They are known as Monstrous Beasts and have claimed the remote mountains and deep seas as their territories. They are in sharp opposition to humans and these territories are marked as restricted areas.

There are some people who have the inborn talent of being able to communicate between the two worlds.

They are known as Dream walkers or in some cultures Taoist priests. They have the ability to peer vaguely into the spirit realm while awake and enter it as an astral projection while asleep.

They are often employed to communicate with the dead or exorcise the monsters or ghosts who often latch onto the dreams of living individuals in order to extract their soul force to sustain themselves.

So, the Cultivation world is a very balanced world where every action has some Karmic retribution. Thus, it is very rare to see someone killing people indiscriminately. Utmost discretion is usually employed to prevent people from tracing the culprit and thereby encumbering him with their resentment.

Disputes are more often solved via open challenges and duels. The loser usually follows the terms set in the agreement, otherwise, the infamy from their shamelessness will make their afterlife worrying.

The misconception that Cultivation Civilizations are anarchical law-of-the-jungle societies where people exterminate each other's clans over the slightest of grievances is pretty absurd.

In fact, scientific civilizations are more into the Kill, Burn and Plunder philosophy. Nepotism and corruption are rife in their societies due to their absence of tangible moral guidelines and their unquenchable greed for resources.

Our Hero, as a talent that only appeared every thousand years, was a little more kill happy than his peers as he knew he would be able to ascend and wouldn't have to deal with any Karmic retribution.

Unlike Devil cultivators, who believed that one should live one's life as if it was their last and enjoy every pleasure it had to offer, and thus, stopped at no evil in their pursuit of a greater power and a greater pleasure, Lin Feng only killed people who deserved to die.

Devil cultivators, drug peddlers, human traffickers… these were the sort who had died at his hands, in his capacity as the sect hegemon, after they had tried to cheat the sect out of its payment.

Yet, he was a decent guy used to a society where murder was not only frowned upon but also invited retribution from the motive forces of the very world.

He came from a position of power where he had to be responsible for all his subordinates.

The ultimate taboo in his society was the desecration of graves… not even devil cultivators did something like that as it involved blaspheming Tutelary Gods and all under their shelter.

The resulting sin was extremely grave.

Thus, when Pakura had brought up his destruction of the graveyard, he had felt a strong surge of guilt that had washed away his cavalier attitude towards the Suna ninja.

He had just committed the most heinous crime in his cognition against his subordinates, people he had promised to protect in return for their submission.

He had felt sick. It was like experiencing the feeling of taking a life for the first time all over again.

It had shaken him to his very core and he felt grateful towards the courage of the woman who had pointed it out to him in time to prevent his further degeneration.

The depth of his emotion. The common origin of the fragments of the World Will present in them both. The tenuous grasp on Void Force that he had developed at that time. It all came together, culminating in the strange bond that they shared.

The only effect, as far as they had determined, was that within ten metres of each other, they could sense the other's emotions.

With a proper level of soul cultivation, even that could be blocked.

Yet, it was useful in gaining her trust during the long conversation they had the next morning.

He had told her about his circumstances and she had listened deluded as her horizons expanded.

He had requested her to follow him on his path to immortality. Having nowhere else to go and enticed by his proposition she had agreed.

He didn't love her. He had just met her after all.

He wasn't that desperate for female company either in a village whose women were conditioned by their training to believe that it was their duty to bear as many of his children as possible after the display of his strength.

She was twenty and he over sixty years her senior… although age was less of a restriction and more of a guideline on the path to immortality… he was no cradle robber.

Admiration and gratitude were the driving emotions behind his proposal and over the month they had spent together, they had grown more comfortable in each other's company.

She had been invaluable with her local perspective on the possible changes the intruder's terraforming might have caused.

As a competent kunoichi, ranked much higher than the Suna scout and much less cloistered than the two jinchuuriki whose memories he had been basing his conduct upon, she was a font of classified knowledge on jutsu mechanics, sealing and information on the political climate.

She had even drawn up a schedule and political agenda for him to logically succeed Rasa as the Fourth Kazekage without upsetting the Daimyo of the Land of Wind and his subordinate samurai.

What he liked the best about her was that her civilian background before her sudden awakening meant that she had escaped the conditioning the others had been subjected to.

As such, she was able to meet him as an equal during their conversations without devolving into the blatant displays of seduction the other women were prone to.

Well, as we speak, the confrontation between Pakura and the wielder of the Executioner's Blade is iminent.

Let us turn our gazes towards there.

…

Pakura flit from branch to branch as she took a diagonal path, from where she had been teleported, in an interception course with the harried swordsman.

Her thoughts drifted to Lin Feng.

She had developed a new opinion of him after knowing his origin and being exposed to his charisma as he slowly wove his spiderweb within the high levels of Suna, his connections spreading like branches on a tree or the ripples on a still pond until it encompassed the entire council, building Rasa's rule on stilts, both politically and from the perspective of relative strength.

He had done in a month what she had tried and failed to do for the last year.

For now, he was her friend and confidant. The only one.

She'd had subordinates. She'd had superiors. Ambitious suitors after her bloodline were dime a dozen. Yet, for the first time in her life, her reputation or status hadn't made conversational intimacy impossible.

Honestly speaking, she quite enjoyed it.

Shaking her head, she cleared it of extraneous thoughts.

Now, it was time to focus. Her target drew near.


	21. Chapter 20

Ghosting through the canopy, Pakura adjusted the uniform and ANBU mask which she had scavenged off a Konoha jonin who wouldn't be needing things such as garments any longer.

It was slightly tight at the chest.

Shrugging to loosen her limbs, she drew a kunai in preparation for combat as the sand floating around her informed her of the enemy's position. She confirmed it again with her sensory jutsu, the gentle winds bringing tidings of the swordsman's approach.

It wasn't that she didn't trust the red-haired man who had introduced her to the broader universe… it was just her ingrained training kicking in. In a land where people could change their appearances at will and create clones of themselves, you could never have enough information.

As the maxim went, a complacent ninja was a dead ninja.

She entered a relatively dense patch of vegetation, in the projected route of the wielder of the Executioner's blade, that would limit the use of the large cleaver.

Creating an illusory clone, she transformed it into a bird.

She layered it with genjutsu that upon meeting the most common sensory jutsu returned the contour, odour and auditory response likely for the yellow-billed cuckoos that were ubiquitous to this area.

To make the illusion more deceptive, she extracted a nest from the storage scroll which held the props necessary for her camouflage missions and put in three more illusory clones of herself, transformed into chicks.

She had no delusions of deceiving the legendary shinobi with a paltry illusion. Cuckoos were birds that made no nests of their own and laid their eggs in that of others'. She hoped that the swordsman would notice the discrepancy and the mixture of truth and deceit would be enough to give him pause.

A pause fatal against a kunoichi of her calibre.

Erasing her presence as completely as possible, she settled down to wait in the hollow of a tree opposite to her bait.

Very soon, tendrils of mist swept across her ambush spot, exploring ahead for their master.

A six-foot five giant of a man, carrying a gigantic cleaver on his back and obscured by a shroud of fog, emerged from the woods like a spectre.

The branches he stepped off hardly showed signs of his passing, proclaiming his proficiency in the art of lightening.

His eyes seemed to shoot electricity as he scanned his surroundings for threats while moving as fast and as stealthily as he possibly could in order to shake off the pursuit of the Konoha trackers.

His injuries from the shockwave from the eighth gate seemed to have been temporarily suppressed by some drug or a medical seal. Yet, intense combat so soon wouldn't be the brightest of ideas.

True to her prediction, his steps stagnated as he detected the oddity of her camouflaged clones. Vigilant, he immediately began hand signs for the Hidden in the Mist technique… which was what she had been waiting for as she exploded out of her ambush, accelerating herself with explosive bursts of flame.

The response of the man was like lightning, spinning on his heel, he managed to stagger their bodies, avoiding the kunai thrust to his heart.

The short blade sliced through the bindings that held the Executioner's blade to his shoulder and scored a gash along his flank.

Pakura spun around, shooting off blades of wind into his face as he countered by spitting out viscous blobs of water.

The blobs were split up by the wind blades, neutralizing them in the process. From where they landed on the ground, gelatinous humanoid figures rose, condensing into eight water clones that immediately went on the offensive.

The original swordsman hopped down from the tree, stanching his wound with an application of his chakra and landing beside the blade which had been buried up to its hilt in the soft marshy soil.

Pakura ducked and wove among the clones, avoiding their mechanical pre-programmed attacks with ease as she dispatched them swiftly with impeccably timed wind edges from her two palm-sized metallic folding fans and kicks from her bladed boots.

Deciding that she was too skilled for him, in his injured state, to dispatch swiftly enough to avoid the following pursuit, the swordsman grabbed the hilt of the blade, to pull it out and make his getaway while she was still occupied by his clones.

His eyes widened as the sword refused to budge, unbalancing him. He dived out of the way of a fireball from Pakura and rolled away from the blade, distressed.

Having dispatched the clones, she advanced on him, swirling and pirouetting in an intricate dance, the fans in her hands guiding the currents of air into an ever-growing typhoon that merged with the incandescent stream of flame from her mouth, forming a storm of pale yellow fire that desiccated the surroundings, evaporating the moisture from whatever it contacted in a flash leaving dry inflammable husks that caught fire with consummate ease.

Soon the Kiri shinobi was faced with an advancing wall of fire and smoke that threatened to consume the entire mangrove.

His attempts to call upon the mist were met with failure as the moisture in the air couldn't stand up to the intensity of the flames of the scorch style.

He coughed out blood, as his injuries played up. The blood was immediately vaporized by the heat as it left the protection of his coating of water natured chakra. Even through it, he felt his eyebrows and hair get singed.

Clenching his teeth, he decisively gave up on his attempts to retrieve the sword and disappeared into the thick smoke that was filling the forest from the rapidly expanding fire.

The fire split like a subject before its emperor as Pakura walked up to the Executioner's blade and pulled it out of the bindings of the sand which had held it in place.

Hefting the unwieldy blade strenuously, despite her better than average proficiency in body strengthening, she sealed it away in a prepared scroll and made a sign at the inconspicuous eyeball of sand that had been hovering in the canopy.

Tendrils of sand cocooned her and with a fluctuation of Void Force, she was gone, leaving the uncontrolled flames behind.

The scorching flames spread from tree to tree evaporating the moisture of the marsh. It lit up the forest with an infernal glow, filling it with smoke and driving its fauna into a frenzy in their bid to escape.

The Leaf ninja had to abort their pursuit to deal with the flames that could otherwise immolate their camp.

The smoke and confusion hid the traces of the swordsmen, allowing them to escape.

Now that the wielder of the Executioner's blade had a personal run in with a 'Konoha shinobi' aiming at capturing his sword, he would act as a testimony to the Leaf's covetousness towards the legendary artefacts.

Pakura had let him off in the hopes that this information would spark a comprehensive war amongst the two villages, opening up avenues for Suna to profit as a third party in the dispute.

The rising column of smoke obscured the moon, casting deeper shadows upon the land.

Dawn was a long way away.


	22. Chapter 21

Stepping out of her crumbling cocoon of sand, Pakura was greeted by the sight of Lin Feng struggling against an abomination that looked like a pufferfish with a hilt.

The twin-handled sword, Hiramekarei, lay beside him as he kept the _thing_ from chomping down on his face by sticking a tanto into its gaping maw, jamming it open.

The sandy platform was in shambles. Cracks proliferated its entirety and chunks of sand were separating from it, falling to the ground far beneath them.

She could see the space around Lin Feng's body warp as it kept the spines of the writhing creature from turning him into swiss cheese.

As she watched, the warping grew weaker and weaker and the creature seemed to grow larger and more vigorous in its struggles.

"Ahh… girl, am I glad to see you back… as you can see I'm in a bit of a pinch."

She grimaced at the possibility of having to approach the disgusting thing. "What the fuck is that thing?" she asked with a hand on her hip as she raised an eyebrow.

"The true form of Samehada, the living sword… it turned out to be a faux tailed-beast with an incomplete soul that symbiotes with its partner to complete itself."

"That's good isn't it? Isn't merging with tailed-beasts what you've been doing all this time?"

Samehada had somehow managed to spit out the tanto and clamped onto his arm with its serrated teeth, finally drawing some blood as it penetrated his weakened defences.

Lin Feng howled in agony as he slammed his fist repeatedly into what he assumed was its head. "Owww… let go you bitch. Girl, I'll explain later… if we delay this any further, it'll really eat me… for now follow my instructions."

Pakura immediately felt the link between them open, flooding her psyche with his emotions.

 _Irritation, anxiety and hope, colourful streaks in a white sea of calm._

"Immerse yourself in the sensation of my emotions yet keep yourself separate and reveal your emotions to me. Imagine that we are connected by a string formed from our feelings. Feel what you feel. Feel what I feel. Show me what you feel. Show me what I feel. Two beings, one mood. Two moods, one being."

The lilting cadence of his chant accompanied by the hypnotic flux of his emotions drew her into a trance where their minds intermingled in a riotous burst of colour. She felt his trepidation peter out in favour of anticipation as the bond between them seemed to become more tangible.

Her surprise and embarrassingly, her concern leaked out into the link, exposing it to the both of them.

She caught a hint of amusement from him causing her mortification and irritation to peak.

Before she could lash out at him, the bond snapped into place, jolting her mind. She opened her eyes and found herself in another world.

It was an unadorned, white plane that stretched out in all directions for an indeterminate distance.

Her form was an illusory version of herself, seeming more like a projection rather than an entity while near at hand stood Lin Feng, facing off against Samehada which he had somehow managed to peel off him and wrap in dark metal shackles.

He seemed more solid than her and she could clearly feel the bond connecting them.

"Welcome to my mindscape, girl." He smirked.

"Just as insipid as you… should have known." She huffed, crossing her arms.

Awkwardly fumbling for a rejoinder and finding none, he tried to shift the topic. Pointing at the struggling living sword that had grown to the size of a large man, he explained, "That thing has the ability to devour energies. Till now, due to its incomplete soul, it couldn't absorb energy by itself and needed a host to provide it with energy or use it to devour the chakra of others. Since no one here can absorb world vitality, let alone higher tier energy like Void Force, its growth was stunted and it could be used as a weapon."

"Let me guess… when it came in contact with you it absorbed world vitality and Void Force and evolved into something more dangerous that even you can't handle."

"Ah… hahaha… How could that be? I would never make such a preliminary mistake. Hahaha." His stilted laughter faded out under her pointed stare and she felt his embarrassment from the bond.

He sighed and drooped his shoulders. "Yeah… I had just finished disposing of the corpse of its previous master and was trying to teleport it to me by wrapping it with Void Force like I did for you and Hiramekarei when it went crazy and sucked up all of it and followed the space link to reach the sand platform and assault me."

"You saw how the platform was crumbling, didn't you? That was the thing sucking up world vitality from it faster than I could supplement from the surroundings. The more it consumes, the stronger it grows. I think it had a limit on how much it could consume before it contacted Void Force but now?" He shook his head, "Now it is a bottomless pit."

Pakura asked, "Why didn't resort to soul combat before I came? Isn't that your specialty for assimilating things like this?"

"As a living weapon, it was always the subordinate in the relationship… but after the mutation, its become much stronger and its attribute has enhanced too. Soul energy is just yin chakra… it can be absorbed… if I'd let it into my mind, it would have sucked me dry and taken over control, turning me into a monster that only craved energy… given time and unobstructed, I would have turned this world into an empty husk before moving on to other planes."

She felt his seriousness through the bond as her shock permeated it. "Then why can you shackle it now?"

The grim mood melted like snow under the sun as intense self-satisfaction flooded the bond. "It's the bond. By connecting myself to you, I am somehow protected from its chakra absorption. Given that it's ability is most surely some principle level thing, like the devouring principle or absorption principle, I think that our bond too has some sort of principle involved. Now, if…"

Incredulity flooded the bond as she interrupted him. "Stop! Stop for a second! You mean you did this based on speculation?! You guessed?! How could you be so irresponsible?!"

He defensively replied, "What?! I had no idea this would happen either… you were my last straw to grasp. You know how tailed beasts are. They convert any sort of physical impact or mechanical energy below a certain threshold into world vitality. That's why its so hard to injure them unless your damage output is higher than their conversion threshold. How else would solid masses of world vitality have such tenacity. And this new Samehada had the bonus attribute of energy absorption, making it immune to all my techniques… in fact the only reason I lasted so long is because I follow the path of Heavenly Communion and don't store energy in my own body, or I'd have been sucked dry within minutes. The only way to hurt it is via physical means… but even that genin with all eight gates open only managed to injure it. With the energy it converted from the kick, it was able to repair most of the damage."

"Well… I don't know… you've always been this invincible existence and now suddenly you seem mortal just like the rest of us… I guess the contrast got to me. I apologize for my rudeness." She apologized with a bow.

He chuckled, "Glad to know you think so highly of me… I guess?" a warm feeling both of them couldn't name permeated the bond.

She blushed and straightened up. "Ahem. So, what do we do with that thing?"

"We wait."

"For what?" she asked curiously.

Instead of replying, he pointed at the sword which had stopped struggling.

"GiGiGiGiGi!"

With a warbling scream of outrage, Samehada exploded out with a shockwave of energy that shattered the chains and passed over him, ruffling his clothes and hair and passing through her ethereal form.

The sword, visibly smaller after its outburst, shot towards them at blinding speeds, propelled by another burst of chakra.

"Let me try something I just learnt... Gate of Opening, Gate of Healing… OPEN!"

The ground cracked as Lin Feng stepped forward and his right leg blurred as it shot upwards, slamming into the chin of the lunging sword sending it flying back.

"Owww! Shit, that hurt me a lot more than it hurt you, bitch!" he cried out as he hopped about on one leg.

With a wave of his hand, a curtain of rose coloured flame emerged baseless and submerged the sword which was tumbling in mid-air. "Enthusiasm Fire!"

Samehada slammed into the ground, writhing around as the flame burnt it.

It opened its mouth and inhaled deeply, warping the space around it causing the flame to gutter as it tried to absorb it.

The bond between them twinged and an incorporeal strength proliferated through the mindscape, steadying the flame.

"GiGiGiGiGi!"

Enraged, the burning sword shot towards the duo even faster, chained bursts of chakra causing it to turn into a flaming blur.

Slamming his palms to the ground, he yelled, "Hey! Didn't your mother tell you that persistent women aren't attractive!"

A dark metallic wall rose from the ground, blocking its path. "Resolution Earth: Adamantine walls."

Bang!

With a collision that made the entire mindscape seem vulnerable, Samehada slammed into the wall, warping it.

It slowly peeled off from the wall and lay dazed on the floor for a moment before its energy reserves healed it. The shockwave seemed to have had the unexpected effect of blowing out the spiritual flames on it.

"GiGiGiGiGi!"

" **GiGiGi**!"

" **GiGi!** "

Thoroughly incensed, it screamed, spitting out blobs of dark and light energy that coalesced into a midnight black ball of pure destruction.

The ground around it fissured from the weight of the condensed chakra as the sword parted its maw, swallowing it.

Pakura's eyes widened as she saw the tailed-beast bomb forming, the suffocating pressure causing her to unceasingly backlash despite her incorporeal nature.

She turned to Lin Feng and was startled by the confident smirk on his face as well as the confidence oozing through their bond.

With a hearty laugh, he punched the ground, "Get it through your thick head already, I'm single and not ready to mingle!"

Despite the tension, her lips twitched at his lame break-up jokes.

Just as Samehada opened its mouth to shoot the tailed-beast bomb, a metallic fist rose from the ground, slamming its mouth shut, cracking its teeth with the force.

The bomb detonated inside it, causing it to inflate like a balloon before deflating with smoke pouring out of its mouth.

By now, the sword had used up a lot of its energy, causing it to return to its normal size.

It quivered as it healed from the aftermath of the failed attack.

Its spines retracted into it except for a few that fused into fins as its body grew more streamlined and its hilt morphed into a tail. Two golden eyes formed on the sides of its head, locking onto Lin Feng and Pakura with an undisguised malice.

Lin Feng's laughter snapped Pakura out of her apprehension. "Haha! I was waiting for this. After swallowing the soul of all its previous masters and absorbing Void force, its finally become a complete soul through this intense fight."

"Isn't that bad news?" asked Pakura probingly.

"What? No! Its great news. Until now, I couldn't let loose as I was worried about it entering into a symbiotic relation with me. Its like the saying about an idiot dragging you down to his level and beating you with experience. But now that its become a complete soul, I can use all my techniques on it without compunction!"

Roar!

No longer the immature squalling of an incomplete soul, Samehada's roar vibrated the entire mindscape as it barrelled towards them.

Lin Feng's face drained of emotion as he joined both his hands together in the posture of prayer. A great dignity emanated off him as the light of Karmic Virtue shone from beneath the skin of his face, obfuscating his features in a golden brilliance. The Enthusiasm Fire burnt even more prosperously tinging with a holy saffron to form the Fire of Karma, condensing into a floating lotus throne.

He stepped on the void, flaming lotuses blooming at each step to cradle his bare feet as he ascended to the throne and sat cross legged on it.

His eyes bloomed with a scary brilliance as he stared at the approaching beast.

Warned by its instincts of a fatal danger, the shark immediately turned tail and flushed away towards the walls of the mindscape, seeking to finish the fight in the real world.

 **There was once a riverboat,**

 **That sailed the mortal streams.**

The sound seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, echoing through the blankness of the mindscape.

Immediately, planks of dark spiritual metal appeared baseless around the fleeing beast, forming into a small ship that caged it in despite its spirited struggles.

 **There was once a riverboat,**

 **That traversed the brook of dreams.**

A shimmering stream of water formed of memories flowed in a meandering course from one end of the mindscape to the other, picking up the ship and carrying it downstream. A wayward breeze formed of thoughts filled its sails, pushing it faster down the course.

 **It travelled once, then detoured twice,**

 **It floundered, then cycled thrice.**

 **From life to night, from death to day,**

 **It stopped to rest, then sailed away.**

 **Nine times upstream, nine times down,**

 **Nine turns it took to reach Heaven's crown.**

The boat followed the words of the verse, moving in accordance with their lilting rhythm. It reached higher and higher as it traversed the river's course.

 **In the very end, it joined the Sky,**

 **Through flames that caused its heart to die.**

The river of memories ended in a sea of crimson fire. As the boat passed through the layer of flame, it melted. The impurities sloughing away as flecks of black until all that was left was a transparent marble that glittered with a seven-coloured brilliance.

Just as the pill formed, the bond between them vibrated crazily, as it resonated with something evoked during the concoction process.

Lin Feng opened his mouth and the mindscape twisted as it, along with the pill was inhaled into his stomach.

Without a mindscape, Pakura could not maintain their link and was expelled out of his mind.

In the real world her eyes snapped open to see Samehada, or whatever was left of it slowly melting into his body.

The corners of his eyes elongated and turned outwards and gills formed on his cheeks as the fusion proceeded.

From what she could see of his exposed hands and bare feet, his fingers and toes tapered into claws while the webs between them grew more prominent.

Other than that, he was mostly unchanged in appearance. That could not be said of his strength.

In the flash that he opened his eyes, the world seemed to lose colour as an Aura, formidable to the pinnacle, dispersed from him, causing the hearts of birds within the radius of a mile to stop beating from fear.

When their gazes met, Pakura felt she was looking into the eyes of an apex predator.

A predator that could reap her life with a mere thought.

Lin Feng blinked and the moment passed. The aura fading away like a bad dream.

Their connection returned in full force as his jubilation washed over her, overriding the fear he had engendered the moment before.

He said, "I know now what connects us… and what it means."

His smile had a lot more pointy teeth than before. "And what it means for our enemies."


	23. Chapter 22

_Shivering, I stopped to rest halfway up the mountain. The chilly breeze cut into my exposed flesh like razors despite my best attempts to bundle myself up in the warmest clothes I could find._

 _Ducking into an abandoned cavern by the roadside, I sank down against a wall that shielded me from the assault of the wind, grateful to its previous occupant for deciding that a change of scenery was in order._

 _Gingerly peeling off my woollen face mask, I winced as it came away with an infernal mixture of solidified snot, clotted blood and nasal hairs. It seemed that I'd be doing my breathing through my mouth for a bit longer._

 _The Kunlun Mountain was the highest mountain on the most elevated plateau of the entire plane. It was labelled by some as the Roof of the World. Obviously, this elevation wasn't agreeing with my frail physique._

 _As a twenty-six-year-old peak-stage Attuning to the Heavens realm cultivator, I was miles ahead of the curve._

 _That, however, didn't stop me from being just as frail as the next human in the face of the elements. A situation that would only be remedied when I made a breakthrough to the Communing with the Heavens realm and condensed a perpetual flow of world vitality around my body._

 _I took off my mitts, exposing my wind burnt hands and fumbled around in my pack for the canteen and the paper-wrapped stick of butter. Unwrapping it, I rubbed it all over my peeling hands and kneaded some of it into my face and chapped lips while rehydrating myself with the last of the canteen's contents._

 _Having all my acupoints unblocked did allow for an accelerated healing rate, enhanced stamina and shorter recovery times. Thus, such simple ministrations were enough to tide me through._

 _As the prickling from my exposed skin subsided, I went about the onerous task of setting up camp._

 _I collected some snow in the canteen and hung it over a roughly drawn runic array that would convert world vitality into heat._

 _The entrance to the cavern was pretty narrow and shielded from the wind. So, all I had to do was set up some runic alarms to warn me if any of the local wildlife had the same taste in shelters as I did._

 _The water had come to a boil by the time I had my sleeping bag and illumination runes set up. Putting the jerky, a dollop of butter and the herbs I had collected on the way in my bowl, I topped it off with the boiling water before refilling the canteen with snow, this time for potable water._

 _The heating array made the cavern quite cosy and I stripped to my undergarments, laying out my sweaty parka at the entrance so that the cold would freeze my sweat and I could scrape it off in the morning before setting out._

 _Filling myself with the impromptu stew and licking the bowl clean, I placed it by the parka. In this icy hell, at least doing the dishes was a simple matter._

 _Easing myself into the sleeping bag, I felt the exhaustion of the day catching up with me._

 _My mind drifted to memories of my childhood._

 _I was the only heir to a mercantile group subordinate to one of the five Grand tier Sects: The Grand Architectural Sect._

 _As such, I was born with a golden spoon in my mouth… rather, a golden ticket to the disciple selection of the Sect._

 _I had always been laid-back as a child, seeing that I could attain success one way or the other. Either I passed the discipleship examination and entered the cultivation world or I failed and inherited my family's business._

 _So, as I stood in line with the rest of the eight-year olds of my township, I was quite conspicuous as one of the few who weren't little bundles of nervousness._

 _They had us hold a shiny crystal and see if we could get it to glow. Only later were we told that the crystal was a spirit stone inscribed with a light rune. The higher our affinity, the brighter it would glow. In my hand, it shone like a small sun._

 _It took a hectic few days of tearful farewells before I was carted off to the Sect alongside the rest of the brats who had made the cut._

 _Once there, the Sect Master immediately took me under his wing as his eighteenth and final disciple._

 _I had always been a curious child, pestering my attendants with precocious questions about the workings of the world. As such, I revelled in the academic atmosphere of the sect._

 _The Library was my favourite haunt. The scent of drying ink and fresh parchment drawing me towards it like a bear to honey… What? Physical exertion was anathema to me… I might have been a bit on the chubby side._

 _Runes opened a new world to me. The lure of altering the world with the stroke of my pen was intoxicating._

 _I spent my days being tutored in mathematics, science, language, history, geography, politics and economics in the mornings along with others my age while my afternoons were free so I could pursue the branch of cultivation I wanted to major in, be it combat, runecraft, alchemy or any of the other myriad options. The evenings were for contemplation and soul cultivation. There were regular breaks every three months so I could visit my family._

 _It was a substantial routine, one which kept me occupied till my twelfth birthday when the Sect master personally took a hand in my education._

 _It was my first exposure to three-dimensional arrays and architecture. It was love at first sight. It is said that relationships have stages. Mine with the signature techniques of our sect has remained stuck in the honeymoon phase till this day._

 _My phenomenal affinity with world vitality and all things architecture meant that my status rose from the Sect Master's closing disciple to the decided but not announced successor. It was then that I had my first run in with the High Monks of Kunlun._


	24. Chapter 23

_I was sixteen and hopped up on hormones that had stretched me out like chewing gum. The chubby kid was gone and in his place was a gangly teen with a face full of acne and a head full of self-esteem issues and sexual fantasies._

 _I stood at attention behind my master as he discussed business with the Monk who had come to commission our work, fidgeting slightly as my tenuous attention wandered._

 _He was a tall man, my Master, easily as high sitting as I was standing. His wizened features and flowing white hair and beard lent a kindly cast to the towering man who had absolute power over one of the five largest sects on the plane. I loved him as I would a grandfather._

 _Opposite him, causing the chair to creaky from her mass, sat a mountain of fat. No other imagery can do justice to how morbidly obese the woman garbed in a saffron sarong was._

 _She had a perpetual smile wide enough to crinkle her eyes and elongated earlobes that, along with her shaven head, added just the right amount of mysticism to her look to drag her appearance from weird to exotic._

 _In the time I had spent analysing her, their conversation had come to its tail end. Both sides seemed satisfied with the arrangement and she saluted him with folded hands while my Master offered her a slight nod, letting me know that her status wasn't simple. Very few people in the world were eligible to receive my Master's acknowledgement._

 _Her squinted eyes landed on me for the first time during the meeting and they seemed to flash a brilliant gold for a brief instant. Immediately, my ennui evaporated and the hairs on the back of my head stood on end as contradictory feelings of peace and bloodlust welled up from the depths of my very soul. As soon as her gaze slid off me, the feeling vanished leaving me drenched with cold sweat._

 _They shared a glance and my Master sent me out of the room with instructions to wait outside._

 _For what seemed like hours, I paced nervously outside the room, almost wearing a rut into the hard stone._

 _Monsters, fantastical creatures born of human imagination and given life in the spirit world, sometimes reincarnated into the world of mortals as humans instead of beasts. These people with human bodies and monstrous souls usually lived out their lifespans among human society undetected and most of the time, unaware of their own status._

 _A successful reincarnation as a human solidified their unstable essence and when they returned to the Ghostdom upon their death, they gained the capability to become a Tutelary God that could shelter monsters._

 _They were known as Monster Gods and if they chose reincarnation as a beast, Monster Emperors. Each of the restricted areas were populated by monster tribes under the leadership of one or more Monster Emperors._

 _The Monks had strange techniques to ferret out these souls and except them, nipping a future threat in the bud. In my extensive reading, I had come across tales of the Monks' crusade against the Monsters. Most depicted the possessed humans as sly and deceitful people who tried to entrap the Monks via their nefarious schemes or even seduce them while the Monks in the tales were shining beacons of moral excellence who refused to give in to temptation and managed to reap their lives._

 _The commonality between all the stories was that the humans with monster souls were extremely sensitive to World vitality, even inspiring the term monstrous talent when referring to those with excellent aptitude for cultivation._

 _I was often referred to as such. Combined with the strange response I had to the Monk's gaze… for the first time in my short life, I didn't find the term flattering._

 _By the time they came out side by side, I was a nervous wreck and I couldn't help but sink to the ground as my legs gave way in relief when my Master gave me a reassuring smile._

 _I was informed that as soon as I reached the peak of the Attuning to the Heavens realm, I was to represent the Sect and complete the commission that had been discussed today._

 _And to my utter dismay… till then, I had to remain celibate._

 _At that time, the Monk's smiling face, to me, seemed like the grinning of a Devil._

 _I don't really know what motivated me more, my love for architecture and runes or the protest of my teenage hormones at my abstinence when my peers rubbed their rose-tinted lives in my face. Whatever it was, it caused me to attain my breakthrough, both in terms of my cultivation and my proficiency in runes in time for my twenty sixth birthday, making me the youngest person to reach my realm in the recorded history of the sect._

 _After my birthday party, my reputation as a prodigy overspread the region under the sect's control… as did the rumours of my impotence after I had to reject every advance from the daughters of the eminent families looking to make an alliance._

 _I cried myself to sleep that night. Fucking monks._

 _The next morning, I was raring to go to the Kunlun Mountains and get the duty over with so I could get on with my life. My Master had other plans._

 _When I entered his office, I found all seventeen of my senior apprentice brothers and sisters were present. My misgivings were confirmed when Master arrived and informed us that his retirement was overdue and it was high time he chose his successor._

 _Thus, while I was busy completing my assignment in the Kunlun Mountains, the rest of them were to spread out across the land and utilize their skills to benefit the sect. The time limit was till when I returned… by that time whoever had earned the most either in terms of cash or connections, would be anointed as the successor. Given that I was the youngest and most inexperienced, I would have the advantage of having a pre-set assignment. Other than that, all of us would be turned out of the sect with only a few coins and the sect identity token._

 _I shook my head as I returned to the present._

 _Sighing, I switched off the illumination runes, plunging the cavern into darkness that was only illuminated by the starlight seeping through the narrow entrance. I snuggled into my bedroll, positioning my body to avoid the pricking of the gravel on the ground. Here I was, having traversed hill and dale to reach this cave after months of hard travel._

 _The journey had helped me mature from a sheltered youth into a capable adult. I was intelligent enough to avoid falling for the same trick twice and after being ripped off several times, I had grown savvy enough to consistently get the better end of the deal in my future interactions. I missed my rolls of lard from my younger days, at least they would serve me better in this environment than the muscle I had recently developed. Burrowing my way deeper into the sleeping bag, I fell asleep._

 _…_

 _I awoke to the sounds of chanted sutras and the smell of sandalwood. Startled by the change of scenery, I jumped out of the woollen blankets and took in my surroundings. The room I was in was tiny, with just enough space for a bed and a writing desk. My backpack was placed on the desk and after a quick search, nothing was missing. I found my parka folded neatly by the bedside and donned it._

 _Finding the door unlocked, I stepped out of the room and was greeted by the sight of a valley that gleamed golden under the light of the morning sun._

 _A voice interrupted my thoughts, "Beautiful isn't it?"_

 _Snapping around, I saw a young boy grinning up at me, the sunlight glinting off his tonsured head._

 _I was relieved to know that my abductors were the Monks and let loose my vigilance, turning around once again to take in the sight of the holy land._

 _It was a bowl-shaped valley with terraces cut into the sides. The area I was in had row upon row of cabins similar to the one I had exited from… probably the residential area for the Monks, while the terraces on the opposite side were used for agriculture. The base of the valley had a multi-storeyed pagoda resplendent in jade and gold surrounded by stone pillars topped off with burning incense that sent thin tendrils of smoke snaking around the entire valley. In the empty space surrounding it, I could see Monks of all ages practising martial arts or meditating under the shade of the artistically arranged trees._

 _I could only nod. It was beautiful._

 _The boy said, "Come. You must have a lot of questions. Master is waiting for you in her meditation chamber. She will bring you up to speed."_

 _I followed him up the slope after freshening up using a pail of water he had brought along, stopping to greet the Monks who were exiting their rooms with folded palms. Soon, the cabins became sparse and progressively larger until we finally reached an isolated cabin at the highest point on the edge of the 'bowl'._

 _The boy yelled, "Lady Guanyin, I've brought the guest."_

 _A familiar voice resounded from the room, "Come," and the door to the room swung open._

 _"See you around, brother." The boy smiled and waved as he left me alone in front of the cabin._

 _I smoothed out my appearance as best as I could and stepped through the door. The interior was dim with only the sunlight from a small window and the flickering light of a lamp dispelling the darkness._

 _I could make out the ample outline of the female Monk who had come to our sect all those years ago, wrapped in a halo of sunlight from the window behind her and illuminated by the soft glow of the lamp in front of her._

 _She indicated me to take a seat on a jute mat across from her. I acquiesced._

 _Her voice was melodious, as if chanting sutras._

 _"Long years ago, Kunlun was the name of a devil that spewed its burning hatred onto its surroundings, turning it into a purgatory of fire and brimstone. It raged against the world till one fateful day it erupted with all its vitriol, exhausting itself and left with a hollow in its heart. That is the valley that you see today._

 _"After its final eruption, the devil which only knew how to deal death, put down its butcher's knife and walked the path of benevolence. The burning rock that had scorched the land now cooled and solidified into the most fertile of black soils, giving birth to the dense forests and fertile farmlands that cover this region._

 _"Our Order of Monks moved into the crater left in its heart and set up our base here. Normally, the rainwater would turn it into an elevated lake but the summit of Kunlun towers over even the clouds. The rain it gets is just sufficient for our crops to grow without the danger of flooding._

 _"An illusory runic formation has been set up around it so intruders without proper tokens will lose their way in the mountainside, which is why, upon detecting you, I had you brought here in your sleep to keep the path of entry a secret. I hope you won't mind."_

 _I hurriedly assured her that it was fine, which made her smile even wider than before._

 _"Good. Then its time you knew of your heritage and the reason I chose you for the task of sculpting Kunlun into a three-dimensional formation._

 _"Your karmic imprint is a perfect match for the Kunlun Mountain. Your soul contains traces of both the fire of Karma and the light of Karmic Virtue in equal amounts which means that in your previous life you had spent part of your life as a Devil, perpetrating the most heinous of sins and yet somewhere down the line, you had realized the folly of your ways and set about seeking atonement by benefiting the world. Upon your death, the Fire of Karma had failed to immolate you due to the protection of your Light of Karmic Virtue and sent you into the cycle of reincarnation._

 _"Thus, you were born with a new soul tinged with both types of Karmic attainments resulting in your extraordinary talent. If you were to fashion the formation for the Mountain, the resonance between your Karma will make reaching Nirvana easier for those who practice here._

 _"In return we will impart the alchemy technique The Nine Turns Riverboat to you. It was created by a senior Monk in the last cycle of his reincarnation before he reached Nirvana. It details his journey through life and death and contains his insight into the deep meaning of Karma. It will help you in completing this project. It is good that you could resist the temptations of the flesh till now as it requires one to be burdened by the minimum amount of worldly attachment possible for one to initially perceive it."_

…

Pakura opened her eyes as the visions faded away. For a moment she was confused as to who she was, the youth Lin Feng or a former kunoichi of the Sand. Then the deluge of her own memories washed away her confusion and she shuddered.

Turning around, she found Lin Feng monitoring her reactions as they stood in his white mindscape. Looking down at her hands and clenching her fists, she felt a bit more corporeal than the last time she was here.

His words interrupted her self-examination. "Was the memory transfer successful?"

"Yes. It was quite vivid and for a moment there I had an identity crisis." she replied.

"Hmm. That is quite common as far as side effects of reading the memory off a foreign soul go. You get better at separating yourself and maintaining your identity with practice. But, usually it is only possible when someone is dying and his soul is on the verge of dissipating. Reading the memory generally causes the soul to get destroyed. Our bond actually allows us to share memories and emotions without negative consequences."

"So, what is it? You said that you had it figured out."

"A Karmic bond. It is also known as the Red String of Fate. It generally forms between two people who have an intense attachment between them causing them to reincarnate in pairs as long as both souls exist. A plot device rife in the tragic romance fictions in my world.

"In our case, my special soul and the difference in how the principle of Karma works in both worlds along with our common ground of having merged with pieces of the Will caused an insight into the principle and bonded us."

"You seemed very excited about it so how does it help us… Wait! I remember you telling me that an insight into a principle was needed to enter the Grasping Principles realm… and that you could only get it after reaching the peak of the Shattered Void realm and even then, it was dependent on luck."

"Exactly! Now that we have this insight, all we need to do to advance into the Grasping Principles realm is cultivate to the peak of Shattered Void. No need to lie about waiting for a turning point."

"Congratulations. It seems like this world is a lucky place for you."

The idea that the gap between them would widen even further was quite unpleasant and she couldn't help but feel a little depressed. Some of her emotions must have leaked through the bond because he turned to her and grinned.

"Who said I was the only beneficiary in this arrangement? You can use it to access my sensitivity towards world vitality as well as most of the skills I got by absorbing the tailed-beasts and start your cultivation… with your foundation and the boost from Samehada, I believe it won't even be a year before you reach the crystal Qi realm, the realm prior to Shattered Void for the Demonic path."

Her lips couldn't help but curve upwards.

He might have promised to take her along with him down the path to immortality, but she would much prefer it if she walked alongside him rather than as a burden to be carried on his back.


	25. Chapter 24

"The Daimyo isn't happy, you know?" said Pakura as she entered the forge, closing the door behind her.

Lin Feng shook his head, "An impetuous brat, nothing more. If he really is as incapable of reading the political undercurrents as he has demonstrated till now, he won't last till his coronation ceremony. He keeps forgetting that he is our suzerain not our Lord.

"Anyway, don't divert attention. All our preparation has led to this day."

Pakura nodded as she exchanged her normal garb for a standard vest and a blacksmith's apron.

After they had returned from their trip to the Land of Waves, other than his political obligations, Lin Feng had spent the rest of his time building himself a forge from scratch.

Not a very difficult task for one who had built a city in three days.

Then, he had roamed the desert, extracting traces of the hardest metals from the sand and transporting them to the forge with the help of her storage scrolls.

There, he had used the heat from both the four-tails power and her scorch style to melt the metal and form it into a makeshift anvil.

Using the anvil, he had forged two hammerheads. A heavier one for her and a lighter one for him.

She had carved out two shafts from hardwood for the hammers and they had set about beating the imperfections out of the anvil.

Then using the improved anvil, they had reformed the hammerheads in a chained cycle until the anvil and hammers were up to a standard suitable for forging the weapon they had envisioned.

Using their new hammers and anvil, they had created several tongs of varying sizes and grips so they could be used for every occasion.

Since they themselves were the fire hazards, there was no need for a furnace or bellows but they created three quenching tubs.

One was to have pure water for the hard quench, another, oil for the soft quench and the last, salt water for the extremely fast and brittle quenching.

They also created cooling racks with clamps that would ensure that the hot metal didn't distort during the cooling process.

Finally, today, after a month of preparatory work, they were ready to start the actual forging process.

Pakura watched Lin Feng move about the forge gathering the materials as she went about unsealing the tubs of blood they had undergone untold hardships to collect.

She could feel her cheeks heat up more than the poor ventilation of the forge warranted as she studied the corded muscles of his shirtless back.

She hurriedly averted her gaze and suppressed the errant thoughts lest he pick up on it through their bond.

He returned, strenuously carrying the two large swords, the Executioner's blade and Hiramekarei.

"Phew. I really need to exercise my mortal body. In my world, we could use world vitality to manipulate stuff, unlike here where you can directly create material out of energy. If you wanted an earth wall, you would raise it from the ground, using the dirt already there. Here, you ninja just spit out tons of rock like its nobody's business… thankfully they disappear in a minute or so and require massive amounts of chakra to maintain beyond that, otherwise you'd be filling up the seas and creating mountains.

"Back home, after I broke through Communing with the Heavens realm, I never carried a thing again. I just used my control over world vitality to carry stuff… telekinesis if you will. There were even practitioners who majored in controlling swords and blades and using them to attack. Sword cultivators, were what they were called, I believe.

"The closest thing here would be the puppet technique… but that needs tangible chakra threads… its similar to what the sword cultivators of the demonic path used. The Magnet release and Shukaku's sand bending is also along the same vein in that it turns the biological energy into a manipulative force instead of just turning it into the material itself.

"I think that whatever method the intruder used to substantiate the Will also affected chakra and world vitality, making techniques such as transformation jutsu possible where you physically change your contours with solidified chakra."

Pakura chuckled, "That's why you are using that puny hammer."

"Finesse my lady, finesse. My job is to attend to the finer details, the hard-labour falls to those unskilled in the craft."

"Tch… fine… get on with it already."

Lin Feng grinned as he hefted the Executioner's Blade onto four stones affixed to the floor in such a manner that they supported the rectangular cleaver by its four corners a couple of inches above the ground.

His index finger glowed white hot as he drew upon the power of the four-tails and Pakura's scorch style through their bond.

Using it like a blow-torch, he slowly cut out a rectangular hole in the giant blade, letting the piece with glowing edges drop onto the ground.

He explained as he worked, "Now this blade here is a pure piece of blood steel. In my world, it was known as a divine material as it could only be obtained by melting down divine weapons that had been repeatedly used on the battlefield. They absorbed the baleful aura of war and the blood of their enemies and gained the ability to repair themselves with the iron from an enemy's blood. What is more important, the newly formed material would contain traces of the enemy's abilities, strengthening the blade."

He picked up the piece of metal from the ground and flicked it with his finger. A melodious sound emanated from it as it vibrated in his hand.

He pointed to the patterns on the steel as he explained, "See here, there are some flame patterns on this part while here you can make out wavy patterns that represent water. Basically, whenever a blood steel weapon is damaged, the part that falls off loses the self-repair ability due to the portion of the World Will remaining in the most complete part, but the good news is, the discarded portion is still energy conductive due to having once housed the World Will and it still has characteristics of the enemies whose blood was used to make it.

"Thus, this piece here was made from the blood of one or more ninja with fire affinity and/or water affinity. Thus, if I turned this piece into a dagger, those with water and fire dual affinity would be fighting over it as it would be able to boost their techniques.

"Having a blood steel weapon is basically equivalent to having an infinite amount of materials for blacksmithing. Back in our sect we had one, which we had won from a particularly rampant empire that had tried to encroach on our jurisdiction. So, when I saw this beauty, I knew I had to have it."

Pakura curiously examined the piece of metal and tested it with her fire natured chakra, finding that it flowed extremely smoothly through the plate.

She asked, "What about the blades you didn't take? Other than sparking the war between Konoha and the Hidden Mist, what other reason did you have to let them off?"

"Well, Helmet splitter was just two hunks of metal in the form of an axe and a hammer, special only due to the chakra conductivity and hardness it had acquired by soaking up fame for being one of the seven swords.

"The blast-sword is a recent addition to the line-up… formidable only because of its clever combination of explosive tags with a chakra conductive blade. No special power or Will fragment there.

"The Nuibari, the needle-sword, had too little material to matter… it's the same as the helmet splitter otherwise.

"Only the twin-swords, Kiba, had some worth as their fame over many years had allowed a portion of the current version of the World Will to condense in them, giving them powers over lightning. The Executioner's blade and Hiramekarei is same in this respect having portions of the current World Will condensed in them due to their illustrious history. Samehada was the only throwback to the old World Will among the seven swords.

"When I saw the blood steel, I knew what I wanted to build… I needed the final weapon to be equally attuned to all elements, Kiba would unbalance it… so I left it there. Seeing one of the older and more famous swords in the hands of Konoha will hire more hatred from the Mist than only losing the newer swords."

She nodded in understanding, "So that's why you've been collecting all this blood from people with pure and strong affinities to the five chakra natures as well as the blood from those people with elemental kekkei genkai. You want to obtain steel with affinities to those natures. Right?"

"Right! You are worthily the most talent kunoichi of your generation… even this was deduced by you." Lin Feng acclaimed.

Pakura blushed and then quickly regained her composure. "Ahem. So, what next?"

"Next? Next, we make the most artistic steel known to man: Damascus steel."

She watched intrigued as he poured the blood from the prepared tubs on the damaged blade, causing the rectangular hole to fill up with newly formed material.

He then cut out the metal and set it aside, repeating the process for each type of blood till he had nine rectangular pieces. Activating the power of the four-tails on his right hand, causing it to glow internally as if magma ran in his veins, he slit his wrist, causing the boiling hot blood to splash on the sword and get absorbed, forming a new metallic piece patterned in a manner indicative of the lava release kekkei genkai.

He cut the lava release piece into half, softening both of the pieces with her help and beating them out into two thinner pieces equal in size to the others.

He stacked the pieces in the following order of elemental affinities: lava, fire, scorch, wind, ice, water, storm, lightning, explosion, earth and lava, completing the cycle. Each of them had a distinctive pattern and tint representative of their elements.

He then drew upon Samehada's power and his already healed right hand grew greyish and the marine features like the webs between his hands grew more prominent. Slashing his wrist, he irrigated the Executioner's blade with the blood while using the resonance from their Karmic bond to force the Will fragment into the rectangular area using her yin chakra and his soul force.

Next, he cut out a similarly sized rectangle from Hiramekarei after Pakura flooded it with pure yang chakra and they used the principle level coercion of the Karmic bond to drive the Will fragment into the piece.

The white piece from Hiramekarei, with the ability to store and manipulate the shape of chakra represented the yang release while the dark piece with Samehada's power of chakra absorption denoted the yin release.

Placing these final pieces on either side of the stack, Lin Feng welded them together to form a twelve-layer stack of different metals.

Collaborating with Pakura, he heated the metal block to red heat and had her hammer it with all her might until it was stretched out to twice its length as he held on with a tong.

Using a chisel and the smaller hammer, he cut the metal almost all the way through at the halfway point and folded it, doubling the number of layers to twenty-four.

Repeating the process twice, he had ninety-six layers on the metallic block and it was starting to show signs of brittleness. Determining that it was enough, he had her hammer it out into a two-metre-long bar.

Maintaining the levels of heat, the two perspiring weaponsmiths brought the bar over to a large clamp and fixed one end. Holding onto the other end with another clamp, they twisted the billet until they felt the stress levels within the metal reach a critical point.

During the entire process, they kept a constant coating of flux, a mixture of borax and plant ash, on the heated metal to prevent oxidation, reapplying it whenever necessary.

Returning the twisted billet to the anvil, they divided it into two at the two-thirds point with the hammer and chisel, giving them two pieces to work with, one, half the length of the other.

They worked on them alternately, maintaining their heat levels as they hammered them flat, and used the domed head of the smaller hammer to give them the shape and curvature of a traditional katana and wakizashi pair.

They took a break to rehydrate themselves as the two swords cooled on the clamps, tightened so they wouldn't bend.

Pakura asked, "Why the daisho? Are you familiar with wielding such blades in your world?"

He shrugged, "Throwing weapons are out as the opponents at my level could have a hundred means to prevent me from retrieving them or even use them against me and as a mobile artillery, I don't need a weapon for long distance. I'm no swordsman, but at the same time, any weapon for close combat would be new to me, so why not?

"The fact that it's a traditional weapon and status symbol for the samurai I have to meet in a few days is an added bonus. Also, it's a paired weapon which is helpful in developing our Karmic bond further if we each carry one."

Pakura gawked dumbfounded for a long time before she blushed deeply and averted her eyes.

Lin Feng was overwhelmed by the fluster he could detect through the bond. "What?! What did I say wrong?"

Taking several deep breaths, she forcefully restrained her mood and turned to him and spoke very seriously as she looked him in the eyes: "You just proposed marriage to me by samurai custom."

He was stunned, "Oh."

This time he was the one who averted his eyes. They fell into an awkward silence until he interrupted it.

"Oh well, I think the swords are cool now… let's get it over with."

They both got back to work but a tint of red remained on both their cheeks.

Taking down the roughly shaped blades, Lin Feng compressed sand into whetstones of varying hardness and set about smoothing and grinding the wakizashi, the shorter blade, into shape while Pakura worked on the katana.

He used his control over sand to hasten the process and she her chakra enforced strength, completing the process which took mortal swordsmiths months, within mere hours.

They worked together to heat both blades to near melting point, ensuring that the accumulated stress in the metal dissipated and the internal structure of the metal settled into regular patterns.

Taking the swords out of the heat, they checked to ensure that they weren't bent.

He then used a brush to coat the backs of the blades with a mildly heat resistant clay, leaving the edge clear while creating a wavy pattern between the transition zone, setting up the blade pattern (hamon).

They plunged both blades into the pure water for a hard quench followed by the salt water to make them extremely hard.

The lack of clay allowed the edge to cool faster, making it harder but more brittle, while more clay allowed the centre and spine to cool slower, thus retaining its resilience. This also generated a visual pattern on the blade showing the border between the differentially hardened areas.

The blades were now at a very fragile state where a hit from the wrong direction could snap them. Thus, they were put into the vat of extremely hot oil to slowly temper the metal, allowing the crystals in the steel to set, resulting in a much tougher and more flexible sword while retaining its hardness and sharpness.

After the blades cooled, both of them went to work on them with the grindstones, for the final round of polish and sharpening.

In the preparatory phase, they had consulted with Chiyo as the resident expert on poisons and chemicals in the area. She along with several of the swordsmiths had worked with samples of the constituent metals of the Executioner's blade and Hiramekarei that he had provided them and developed two chemicals.

One, which would dissolve the Hiramekarei, leaving the Executioner's blade untouched. The other, which would do the reverse.

Obviously, he kept the fact that he had the blades a secret from them to prevent the information from reaching any spies Konoha or Kiri might have planted in Suna.

Now, Lin Feng dipped the wakizashi in one while Pakura dipped the katana in the other for half a minute in which, the pattern from the Damascus process had been etched out and revealed in all its glory. The patterns only formed on the body of the blade as the edges were too hard for the solutions to dissolve within the limited time.

The wakizashi had a dark body with a shining edge. The patterns on the body of the blade glittered with a multicoloured brilliance like the stars in the night sky. It seemed as if someone had cut the blade out of the very fabric of the cosmos. As such the name Inlustris, meaning starlight seemed fitting.

The katana had a bright body with a dark edge. The patterns on the body seemed to swirl and drift like clouds across the daytime sky. The entire blade seemed to have been crafted from a piece of the Heavens. As such the name of Solis, meaning sunlight seemed appropriate.

Pakura's heart thumped as Lin Feng turned to her with the wakizashi held out horizontally to her on both palms.

His gaze docked with her own and in it she found sincerity. Through the bond she confirmed it.

So, when she heard the words: "Marry me", as she handed him the katana in the same way, she said, "Yes!"


	26. Chapter 25

_Daimyo Wu, as Daimyo, had many wives and consorts, but his favourite was the beautiful Consort Li._

 _But, as all things seem to go, Consort Li inexplicably died in the prime of her life and beauty due to some sudden and undoubtedly elegant illness. Daimyo Wu completely lost his mind to sorrow, taking no joy in his hobbies, ruling the country, his wife, or any of his other consorts. He was completely overtaken by the loss of the beautiful Li._

 _One day, he woke up and began demanding that his servants locate for him a parcel of the legendary incense he had heard was able to bring the dead back to life, known as hangonkō. His counsellors, knowing he was in the throes of madness, begged him to reconsider. They knew that even a glimpse of Li would rekindle Daimyo Wu's grief all over again, but the Daimyo insisted. A search was conducted, and a single portion of hangonkō was found remaining in the imperial stock. Daimyo Wu snatched up the hangonkō and retreated to his chambers, desperate to see his beloved just one more time._

 _Daimyo Wu pored over the incense, heating it with the utmost of care, and thought only of Consort Li, talking to himself like a madman._

 _The smoke began to pour from the incense, a wispy and curious blue, which gradually formed the vague outline of a woman. The Daimyo watched, captivated, as the shape became clearer and clearer, until there was no doubt that it was that of Consort Li._

 _Daimyo Wu called out to her, weeping with joy, repeating her name, and declarations of love. However, the figure simply floated there, oblivious to the Daimyo's presence, though she became more and more beautiful with each passing second. Unable to take any more, the Daimyo ran to Li and embraced her, but the instant his fingers touched her shimmering form, the image disappeared into the air._

 _Daimyo Wu's sad spiral returned stronger than ever before, and he pined for Li as the incense died down, and then he passed away with it._

...

A wonderful tale of love and loss if one disregarded the reports spread in front of Lin Feng detailing how the wife of the Daimyo, Lady Shin had been the one to poison both Consort Li, with a quick acting poison, and Daimyo Wu with a chronic one which led to his insanity.

The hangonkō was basically the catalyst that set off the accumulated poison in his blood and killed him.

Her son with him was slated for coronation as the next Daimyo.

Now this son had invited Lin Feng along with several of the higher-ranking samurai under the Daimyo's jurisdiction to an incense appreciation party.

Nope… not suspicious at all.

Why Lin Feng? Because the Suna council of elders had been won over by him through a series of threats and inducements and had agreed to collaborate to impeach Rasa and nominate him as the Fifth Kazekage.

This needed the approval of the Daimyo.

Although the hidden villages were independent territories, they were still subordinate to the Countries they belonged to.

More importantly, the hidden villages occupied only a small defensible area and were completely dependent on the country they belonged to for their agricultural produce.

For example, only a quarter of the Land of Wind was covered by the desert. The rest was arable farmland. Storage scrolls were expensive as only expert sealers could make them and the amount needed for grain transport was unrealistic. Thus, the camel trains running to and fro between the Wind Country and Suna, in the middle of the desert, were established.

Several squads of ninja were on permanent postings to escort these merchants as they were the true lifeline of Suna… a lifeline that was held by the Daimyo.

Thus, the Daimyo had a veto power in the Kage selection to give him some sense of control over the village. This let the suspicious psychology of the Daimyo relax and prevented incidents such as him enforcing a trade blockade to try and starve the ninja to death.

So, if he was to take up the post, he had to have the approval of the Daimyo, or in this case as the seat was vacant, the Daimyo candidate and the majority of the samurai lords of the Land of Wind.

It was due to these circumstances that Lin Feng found himself housed in a villa in the capital of Wind country with Pakura, preparing for the party he was supposed to attend that day.

Pakura was there as his bodyguard rather than his attendant as her skills in interacting with nobles was non-existent. So, she wouldn't be accompanying him to the party and as he didn't trust anyone else enough, he would go alone.

Not an uncommon choice as most Samurai believed that only they or their successors were worthy of laying eyes on their liege lord and bringing bodyguards to a banquet would show suspicion towards the host.

The fact that they were powerful warriors in their own right didn't hurt.

He adjusted his clothing, a navy-blue kimono with a light mauve haori on top.

The Kimono had the symbol for Kazekage embroidered onto its sleeves while the same was printed on the front of the haori and thrice on the leggings.

Temperature regulating seals were printed onto the shoulder pads, catering to both form and function due to their artistic depiction.

Seals were this world's version of runes… basically symbols imbued with intent that told biological energy what to do.

The seals that had been developed here had the ability to affect world vitality. It was one field in which this world was almost equivalent in development to Lin Feng's home world.

As he smoothened out the creases on his clothes, his eyes lost their focus as he remembered his words with the seal masters who had been responsible for maintaining the seal on Shukaku.

…

 _"What is a seal? It is a trace, a line._

 _"A snake crosses the sand, in its passing, it leaves a seal. The vein on a leaf is a seal. The wheel rut left on a muddy road by a carriage is a seal. The blood vessel in the body of a wild animal is a seal. The path of flowing water is a seal. The lines scored by the wind on the dunes are seals. The fissures in the dry earth after a drought are seals. The clouds in the sky are also seals."_

 _Lin Feng had asked, "Grandmaster, is the seal a simulation of all traces in nature?"_

 _He had shaken his head, "That is an artist not a seal master._

 _"The blood vessel within the body of a wild animal is a seal, this seal can only maintain their survival. The trace of flowing water is a seal, this seal can only make the water flow from high ground to low according to the rule of nature. The vein of a leaf is a seal, this seal can only let it deliver the moisture absorbed by the roots to the leaf blade._

 _"These seals are born in nature, survive in nature and walk arm in arm with the vitality of this stretch of the world._

 _"However, mankind, regardless of Cultivation or the study of Fuinjutsu, has exceeded the need of survival. Therefore although Fuinjutsu originates from nature, it is actually higher than nature."_

 _Lin Feng had asked again, "What is a seal."_

 _"An instruction."_

 _"To whom?"_

 _"To biological energy… world vitality or chakra, each has its own consciousness. A seal or a hand sign, all methods of human cultivation cannot leave the manipulation of energy. Taijutsu manipulates yang chakra to strengthen the body. Ninjutsu manipulates chakra to achieve all kinds of effects. Genjutsu directly attacks the opponent's mind by manipulating yin chakra. Only Fuinjutsu is at a higher boundary than the others… it allows you to instruct the world vitality to do anything you can comprehend and infuse into the symbols you draw."_

 _Lin Feng had questioned, "World Vitality does not have eyes, it does not have an ear, it has no way to know what strange idea you might have in your mind, it is more unlikely that it will know that you want to guide the sandstorms around Suna and transform it into a protective barrier, how then can you make it know your meaning?"_

 _He had replied, "A seal is the bridge between man's mind and world vitality. A seal master congeals a seal by infusing it with his yin chakra and his intent. When it is stimulated, it can have an induction with the wold vitality around it and create water or fire. It can gather clouds to call rain, it can scatter clouds to turn the weather dry._

 _"Actually, it is very similar to your cultivation method. You take your body as the bridge between your mind and the world vitality. Your body is like a musical instrument and the world vitality like the air. Once it insufflates this musical instrument it can create a wonderful music. The world vitality can listen to this music and create a resonance. You open and close your tenketsu to alter the melody. Thus, your body is like a mutable seal which you can change at will."_

 _He sighed, "Your talent in sealing is unprecedented. You probably call them runes but I can feel that the operating principles between both are roughly the same. What is most shocking is your cultivation method. You directly use world vitality without using chakra and the way you use it is more advanced than the highest levels of seal masters in this world._

 _"But such a method requires absurd levels of sensitivity towards world vitality. I am one of the rare few people who can sense world vitality, hence, I am able to understand its trend during various phenomenon. Thus, I can record this trend in a seal, causing resonance with the world vitality, thereby recreating the phenomenon."_

 _Lin Feng asked, "For thousands of years Seal Masters have been studying and recording the symbols of nature, aren't there ready-made seals? If there are, then doesn't that mean that even without the need for the sensation of world vitality fluctuation one can cultivate Fuinjutsu?"_

 _"Can there be two exactly same leaves in the world?"_

 _"No."_

 _"Can there be two completely same people?"_

 _"Obviously not."_

 _"That being the case, you are not I, your yin chakra and intent is impossible to be the same as my yin chakra and intent. Why then do you feel that if we write the completely same symbol, world vitality will interpret it similarly?_

 _"Each Seal Master's yin chakra and intent is a completely different language. If I write a seal, the world vitality can comprehend my meaning. If you write a seal similarly, the world vitality will look at it frustratedly, wondering: why does this person write so incoherently, actually what does he want to say?"_

 _Lin Feng had carefully analysed his words. "Your meaning is that Fuinjutsu can only be sensed by the practitioner and cannot be passed on from generation to generation."_

 _"Um. It can't be inherited. For the same effect, the seal for each seal master is different. The teacher's seal can only serve as a reference for the student._

 _"Actually, if you talk about the Uzumaki clan, they became famous as the best sealers as every member of their clan had extremely similar yin chakra and a great affinity towards world vitality. Thus, in their case, a teacher could teach his student a seal directly. After learning how to perfectly copy the seal, the student could sense what it represented via multiple trials._

 _"Thus, the difference between an Uzumaki sealer and a non-Uzumaki sealer is that while a non-Uzumaki has to research every seal that he grasps from scratch with the boost of having his master's seals as reference, an Uzumaki just has to study his master's seals and slightly alter them to make them more suited for him._

 _"It is no wonder that the Uzumaki rose as one of the most powerful clans in the world. Their alliance with Konoha threatened the balance of power and thus, they were attacked by a coalition of Kiri, Iwa and Kumo. The members of their clan are now scattered all over the nations, their seal repository put to flames."_

 _…_

He snapped out of his recollections as Pakura entered the room carrying a cloth wrapped package.

She unwrapped it revealing Inlustris and Solis, resplendent in their newly acquired fittings.

Inlustris, the shorter of the two blades, was fitted with a black scabbard created from the leather of a mutated chakra beast.

Its hilt was crafted from ironwood which was known to be one of the toughest wooden materials in the world and wrapped in a decorative pattern with a long strip of leather.

Lin Feng had used his sand to carve it into a three-dimensional formation attuned to Pakura's tenketsu arrangement.

Although she was aiming for the Demonic path of cultivation and thus, generally speaking, would have to seal off her tenketsu to begin cultivation, they were trying to merge the benefits of cultivating chakra as well as world vitality by experimenting with the ratio in which they could mix the two. After all, discarding a fully formed chakra cultivation base was wasteful to say the least.

Their experiments had proven very dangerous.

People who cultivated the demonic path with only world vitality ran the risk of absorbing too much of the energy for their meridians to withstand, resulting in their meridians rupturing. That was the worst that could happen.

But during their experiments, when Pakura had tried to mix world vitality and her chakra, beyond a certain point, the world vitality had started to invade her cells via her chakra and started petrifying her. If not for Lin Feng's prompt intervention, she would have died.

They had decided to take it slow with the experimentation after that.

The fittings for Solis, the katana, were the same, except in white. The formation in its hilt was attuned to Lin Feng.

He attached the katana to his belt.

He would probably have to deposit it within a seal once he reached the venue as a sign of respect to his host but until then it was considered a part of samurai culture to always be close to one's sword.

He checked his appearance one last time in the mirror and teleported to a point near the venue.


	27. Chapter 26

Walking through the neatly ordered garden, Lin Feng mused on the idiosyncrasies of the class he was going to hobnob with. The Samurai were a contradictory people. Their creed was an oxymoron: Pride in humility.

As the only continent on the plane, the society was isolationist by circumstance and as such self-sufficiency was of utmost importance. They achieved it by adhering to a strict social hierarchy and constraining the leaders and administrators with an archaic honour code: Bushido.

It was basically a society that placed great emphasis on honour and duty, which was fine until you realized the levels to which it was taken.

Suicide was a valid form of apology in these parts. It even had an exclusive term: hara-kiri.

Social interactions were just an evolved version of the shame game where the hosts and the guests had a good time by poetically demeaning themselves. You won when you degraded yourself to a point below your opponent's bottom line. It was clever in that there were no losers as the winner's humility played to the loser's pride.

Coming from a more liberal environment where sects were run like enterprises and kings were representatives of their subjects, where Gods were treated with respect but not reverence since you could become one yourself, where no one had to bow to another since all it took was a reincarnation to switch places, Lin Feng found this society stifling.

An unintended result of this sort of honour code was the increased intricacy of the social interactions. Somewhere down the line, some Daimyo or the other had gotten it into his head that the more effort a host put into preparations for a party, the more sincerity he demonstrated.

This mentality had escalated over the years until simple things like drinking tea had been convoluted into an artform: sado.

The party that was to be held this day, however, catered to another mundane aspect of life that had been elevated to the status of a hobby only nobles had the qualifications to pursue. The appreciation of incense.

The simple act of lighting combustible substances that emanated an aroma when burnt had been cooked up into a precise science. Everything from the bowls in which incense was to be burnt to the shape of the very room in which the party was to be held had been tacked on with a connotation and the guests were supposed to appreciate it.

Well, it was considered a competitive art for noblemen, who each had their own incense-infused smell, a necessity when one lived in a stiflingly hot valley capital while wearing at least eight layers of clothing in the summer.

Praise be for the inventor of temperature regulating seals.

The practice of an incense appreciation party, like most things when it came to Samurai, was the pinnacle of subtlety and obsessive-compulsion.

After all, when the slightest of detractions from custom could be misconstrued as a personal slight and result in a duel to the death, people were justified in being a bit jumpy.

Lin Feng passed the gates and was invited in by a maidservant in an extremely fancy kimono with the image of a flock of herons flying across a setting sun embroidered on it. She had one arm crossed in front of her, holding the elbow of the other in its palm. The other hand was held in front of her heavily made up face, the voluminous sleeve obstructing her visage below the nose.

She kept her eyes trained at his feet the entire time they spoke. As the potential leader of Suna, he too was a member of the Samurai caste and she had been ingrained with the idea of servitude towards nobility from birth. It made him quite uncomfortable. He made sure to not let it show, he didn't want her to commit hara-kiri to apologise.

Following after her, he sealed away his katana into the storage seal on his cloth belt as per her request. Each step that she took was measured, placing the heel of one foot just a little in front of the toe of the other as she guided him towards the venue while traversing the corridors of the manse in a convoluted pattern.

He took note of the material used for the flooring, a beautifully polished wood, cherry if he wasn't mistaken. Making a mental map of the route taken to the venue, he found that it spelled out a part of the character for winter.

So, the theme for the party was cherry blossoms in the winter.

Despite his extensive research in the weeks he had to prepare for this party, when he was faced with the extent of thought and effort put into the execution, he was still dumbfounded.

The time and effort needed to swap out all the floorboards with the required ones… he couldn't help but shake his head in amazement.

Reaching the room, the maidservant got down to her knees beside the sliding door painted with the scene of an osprey catching fish. She pulled the door open, inviting him to enter.

Maintaining his poker face, he strode into the room and took in the sight of his intended company for that night.

There they were, the five most prominent Samurai lords in the country of Wind, the only five men who were officially of a higher status than him in this country.

Sitting in seiza on cushions embroidered with their family insignia, they meditated with their eyes closed, presumably preparing their minds for the party that was about to commence.

The height and arrangement of the cushions spoke of their relative power and relational dynamics.

Comparing their faces with the intelligence reports he had perused, their statuses were vivid.

Occupying the highest cushion was an aging man with a pure white topknot held together by an embroidered viridian ribbon. Continuing the colour scheme, his haori too was a limpid shade of green reminiscent of budding leaves and embroidered with a scene of the moon shining down on a bamboo grove. His kimono underneath it was a pearlescent beige, setting off the haori perfectly. His sleeves were embroidered with the motif of coiling vines in gold thread.

He was, Fuji Moritake, the lord of the largest agricultural province in the country of Wind. Located towards the south of the country, his province was the largest provider of agricultural produce.

Most of the grain supplied to Suna came from his province, either directly or after passing through multiple middlemen.

Despite the laugh lines at the corners of his eyes, he wasn't affable in the least, having recently doused the fires of rebellion on his land with the blood of the rebels. Gaining his vote would be essential for a successful bid for the position of Kazekage.

Maybe the promise of an increase in the number of escorts for the trade caravans would do… a lot of shinobi were idling due to newly improved defences of the city.

On his left sat a middle-aged man who had styled his hair into a braid that stretched back from the top of his head, the sides having been shaven cleanly.

Togashi Kazuhisa had gained fame through the munitions business. Cold weapons, explosive tags, high quality swords for the samurai classes, when it came to implements of murder, he was a one stop solution for all your needs.

His kimono was the colour of dried blood. Combined with his plain black haori, he projected a rather grim image.

The location of his territory adjacent to the border with the country of Iron ensured a steady stream of materials and business from what was basically a large agglomerate of ferrous mines run as a Samurai boot camp.

The insignia of his clan, a crossed daisho, was embroidered in crimson thread on his lapels.

To the right of Fuji Moritake sat an extremely muscular man who had his russet hair cropped close to his skull except for a ponytail at the back of his head.

Lin Feng walked over and occupied the seat reserved for him to his right. Due to the combination of his seat being the lowest and the man being a giant, his head came up to only his chest.

The man turned to him and gave him a slight nod, so Lin Feng returned the courtesy and he turned away satisfied.

That was Tanaka Mouri, the most famous blacksmith in the Samurai circles this side of the desert. He specialized in creating the armours which were like a second life to samurai. In recent years, he had started dabbling in the weapons market.

As such, his business overlapped with Togashi's and thus, they were not on the best of terms. If their seats hadn't been placed at an equal height, it might have been sufficient grounds for a duel.

Their arrangement on both sides of Moritake indicated that they were both courting him as a potential customer and Togashi apparently disdained to pay attention to ninja, like most Samurai who considered them a lower class, while Mouri was still open to extending his hands into the weapon supply business for Suna.

Given that Suna had its own forges that made it self-sufficient, even a little surplus, in terms of weapons, he would have to be disappointed.

Lin Feng took in Mouri's choice of garments: a pure white kimono overlaid by a sky blue haori with a motif of cranes flying from cloud to cloud. The clothes set off his tanned complexion and the expansive theme complemented his large build.

Finally, to Lin Feng's right sat a man in extremely ornate clothes that still retained their elegance. He had square framed spectacles hanging off his nose and his jet-black hair was oiled and slicked back giving him a suave look.

Kenichi Himura was the lord of the westernmost province of the land of Wind. The black soil formed by the weathering of the volcanic rock around the extinct volcanoes in that area was extremely suited to the cultivation of cotton and the man had capitalized on it to become the largest textile producer in not only the Country of Wind, but the entire world.

Being an alternative as far as Samurai went due to his involvement in trade (merchants were considered a lower caste), he was shunned by his peers. If not for his extreme wealth and contribution to the coffers of the country via his taxes, he would probably have remained uninvited to this party. Thus, the height of his seat was only slightly higher than Lin Feng's own.

After all Bushido didn't equal stupidity and snubbing your source of income was the height of idiocy.

Himura eschewed silk for cotton as the material for his garments, a choice that fit his personality and advertised his wares at the same time. Truly a businessman. No inch of fabric was left uncovered by intricate floral embroidery in vibrant colours.

The beauty of the stitching lay in the artisan's technique where he made it so that a differently coloured thread would be seen if one were to view the embroidery from a different angle, making it seem as if the clothes were shimmering in rainbow hues.

The matte effect of cotton as opposed to the sheen of silk came into play at this juncture, preserving the elegance of the clothes, preventing Himura from looking like a character straight out of a vaudeville.

Lin Feng's own garment, though plain was made with Arachne silk, an extremely tough material extracted from the chakra active spiders that could only be found in the interior of the desert. The material was worth its weight in gold.

Lin Feng pondered over the dynamics between his fellow guests.

He still had the highest quality chakra conductive metal he had extracted from Hiramekarei and the Executioner's blade.

Maybe, he should make an offering to both Togashi and Mouri if he wanted to toe the line.

It might result in two votes in his favour… or it might result in a gift given in vain as both abstained.

On the other hand, if he presented a gift to only one of them, he would surely draw the ire of the other, yielding a similarly neutral result of one for and one against.

The consequences though, would be more polarizing as Suna would be indicating its intention to join a certain faction, entirely reshuffling the power balance.

Moritake, as a puritan Samurai, would not like to see this happening while Himura might be receptive, leaving the final vote up to the host of this party: Shin Wu, the successor candidate for the post of the Daimyo of Wind.

He was currently visible only as a sitting shadow behind the paper screen with a beautiful watercolour rendition of a cherry blossom tree in full bloom.

Shin Wu moved and all of the Samurai in the room awoke from their meditation. He rang a series of bells in a particular order and a maidservant, clad in an unembroidered amber kimono, came in with a jade plate and presented it to him behind the screen.

As mentioned before, the art of incense appreciation was extremely intricate and the host prepared for his party weeks in advance, which included readying his entire mansion for the one room the party would be held in and burying his incense in a jar next to a river to keep it fresh so that it could be brought in by ladies at key moments. Even the colour of their dresses had implicit poetic connotation.

A few days prior to the event, guests were expected to fast, carefully eating light foods, and taking an especially hot bath for a prolonged amount of time. They had to be careful not to use any perfume or wear a sachet, as the point of this was to arrive as scent-less as possible, so that they wouldn't upset the delicate balance of the varieties of incense they would inhale.

The work of the host was to heat the incense on a burner and present it on in a censer to be passed on from guest to guest.

In front of the guests, there were ten tiles with a poetry corresponding to the ten incenses to be used in the game.

Using the combined information from the scent, the setting, arrangement of the room, colour of the dress of the maidservant delivering the incense, the number of bells rung, the order in which they were presented and even the time of the day, the guest had to guess which incense matched which tile.

The order in which the censer would be passed followed the seniority of relationships. So, the maidservant took it from Shin Wu's hand and passed it on to Fuji Moritake.

The old man sat ramrod straight in a perfect seiza and raised the censer by cupping it with one hand, tilted his head down, and wafted the smoke towards his nose with the other.

After taking three small sniffs, he passed it back to the servant and chose a tile from the ten.

Another maid, the one who had brought Lin Feng in accepted it with both hands and brought it behind the screen.

Shin Wu struck a gong beside him once to show that he was correct and the maid brought back the tile and placed it before Moritake.

The maid with the censer, took it away and exited the room.

This time Shin Wu rang three bells and a maid in a sandy brown kimono entered with another incense on a jade plate.

This time, the round started from Himura due to there being a dilemma about who to give precedence out of Togashi and Mouri due to their rivalry.

It was also a slight slap on the wrist for placing the host in such an awkward position.

After sniffing it, Himura declined comment and the censer passed to Lin Feng.

He followed etiquette and wafted the smoke towards his nose and took in the smell. It reminded him of a fragrance Pakura was fond of and which came from the extract of a cactus that only grew near Suna.

Singling out a tile that bore a poem describing sudden rain in summer which allegorically referred to the internal moistness and external aridity of the cactus, he selected it.

After a brief confirmation, Shin Wu declared him correct and the tile was added to his pile. Moritake sent him an appreciative nod.

Thus, the game went on, and the incenses cycled through the room, filling it up with a rich mixture of fragrances, making judging the following incenses progressively harder.

After five cycles, the guests were allowed to drink from the small cup of straight vinegar to refresh their nasal passages.

The final tile went to Lin Feng automatically as Himura had solved the penultimate one. He had to explain the relation between the tile and the fragrance otherwise, it would pass on to the next guest in line.

Reverse engineering the relation from the tile wasn't too difficult if he could recognize the fragrance, so he waited for it to appear.

He had two tiles already and if he obtained the last one, he would be tied for first place with Moritake, exceeding Himura, who had two, and Togashi and Mouri, who had only managed one each.

It would show his culture and would earn him a higher right to speak in the following discussion of political matters.

A maid wearing a pure white kimono entered with the final incense, Shin Wu lit it and she brought the censer to him.

He raised the censer by cupping it with one hand, tilted his head down, and wafted the smoke towards his nose with the other in the standard posture.

Just as he took the first whiff, a sense of crisis covered his soul.

Immediately discarding the censer, he called on his Void Force to try and teleport away.

The colours in the room dulled as space seemed to solidify and his Void Force failed to penetrate it.

In the flash that he had tried to escape, the maidservant had extracted her hairpin, coated it with wind chakra and plunged it at his eye.

Togashi had extracted a blood red katana and swung down at his head in a two-handed kendo strike, his blade glowing incandescent with fire natured chakra flow.

Mouri's hands blurred as he ran through the seals for the summoning jutsu, calling forth a jet-black set of Samurai armour that encapsulated his massive frame. He immediately knocked out a fist at Lin Feng's head, seals shining all over his armour as they activated and boosted his attack. A sonic boom rang out as his fist broke the sound barrier.

Himura lashed out with a whip, trying to bind his feet so he couldn't move.

Moritake too turned into a blur, swinging his unsealed halberd at his waist in a bid to bisect him, tendrils of lightning sparked on it indicating his use of chakra flow on the weapon.

 ** _*Bang*_**

With a shockwave, all five of them flew off in different directions and slammed into the walls of the room, causing the brilliance of the protective seals to weaken.

There was a deep crater around Lin Feng in the area where the protective seals had been overloaded by the detonation of half his reserves of Void Force.

He had created the technique after emulating the detonation of Void Force upon the opening of the eighth Gate. Due to the lack of a mortal body to bear the load and direct the technique, the might of the blast was only about a quarter of the actual Eight Gates Released Formation and it was extremely inefficient in terms of consumption of Void Force.

Still, it was a terrifying technique.

It spoke volumes of the strength of the seals that as much of the room was left intact after the explosion.

It had also saved the lives of his five assailants as the seals had absorbed most of the damage, only causing them to faint.

The tables and all other furnishings in the room had been pulverised.

Only the paper screen remained suspiciously intact.

Lin Feng coughed out a large amount of blood as the poison began to take root in his body. Yet he didn't dare to divert attention to treat himself because the main perpetrator was still behind the screen.

When he had realized what had happened after the space was blocked, he had been shocked.

Not because of the blockade but due to the method used.

It was Void Force of higher purity than his own which had been used to coagulate the space in the room and hide the suppressant seals from his sensation.

Right after he had failed to teleport, he had tried to draw upon world vitality and failed. In this room, the seals had evacuated world vitality. Forced to have no choice, he had unleashed the new technique: Void Collapse, to bail himself out of the difficult situation.

He would have preferred not to have used it. Even though it bypassed the body, it was, after all, a knock off of the self-damaging Eight Gates technique, thus, it had repercussions for its use. Repercussions that he in his poisoned state couldn't withstand.

He coughed out another bloody gout and a trickle of blood ran down his left nostril.

There was only one being he knew was capable of utilizing Void Force so adeptly in this world.

His mind analysed and discarded numerous plans. He tried to stall for time as he drew upon the strength of his bond which was still un-zoned.

"Who are you?" his voice was hoarse from the poison.

The shadow behind the screen began to morph into a more feminine contour.

The figure stepped forward and through the paper as if it was an illusion.

Lin Feng's eyes couldn't help but widen at the sight of her.

Long flowing white hair, eyebrows trimmed to be short and round, clear white eyes, painted red lips, and delicate facial features on a slender physique. She was perfection incarnate.

Her voice seemed to echo down to the depths of the Void and out into the vast universe.

"Kaguya Otsutsuki" she said.

"As a guest to my world, it would be impolite of me to not greet you, now, wouldn't it?"


	28. Chapter 27

_Inside the World of Infinite Dreams:- [Kaguya used tskuyomi]  
_

Lin Feng, at eight years of age, loved flowers. He also loved snow.

But when the snow came, the flowers always went away. He didn't like that. He wanted both.

His mama sometimes told him stories where if you prayed to the Heavens nicely and were a good boy, it would grant your wishes.

He was a good boy. Everyone in the village praised him. So, all he would have to do was pray.

He shut his eyes tightly and muttered under his breath…

'flower, snow, flower, snow…'

When he opened his eyes, he couldn't help but scream in delight.

In front of him, the entire snow-covered lawn had been filled with sparkling crystalline flowers of ice.

He was really excited. It was beautiful. He wanted everyone to see it, especially mama.

He ran into the house, yelling for his mother at the top of his voice.

She was in the kitchen, cooking lunch and looked up, amused, when he ran into the room in such an excited state.

He was too impatient to explain and dragged her by the hand to the garden and turned to her and presented it proudly.

When she saw the garden resplendent in icy florets, the colour drained from her face and her hands started to shiver. The ladle she hadn't had time to put down in the kitchen dropped out of her lax hands.

Lin Feng couldn't understand why his mama just stood there shivering. He tilted his head in confusion. Was she cold? Yeah, it was winter so that must be it. He nodded to himself. Somehow, he didn't feel the cold though. He felt at home in the snow.

*slap*

The sharp crack of palm against cheek resounded in the courtyard.

Lin Feng staggered to the ground at the unexpectedness of the blow.

Before he could come to terms with being slapped by his mother, she fell to her knees and hugged him to her bosom tightly and began crying.

"Sorry baby… I didn't mean to hurt you… but promise me. Swear that you will never use that power again. It's a curse… the worst thing that you can do… worse than the demons in the fairy tales. Promise mama that you'll never do what you did today. Hmm?"

Lin Feng nodded through his tears. "I, I p-promise."

She kissed him on his reddening cheek and embraced him, surrounded by a sea of sparkling ice flowers.

…

 _Expansive marble corridors…_

 _Laughing along with Senior brother Jin as he caught me in a headlock…_

 _Master boasting about me to the head of the Alchemy tower over multiple cups of alcohol…_

 _My days with the Monks of Kunlun…_

 _The coronation ceremony when I came back…_

 _Master's funeral, my tears mixing with the rain…_

 _My dispute with Senior brother Jin…_

 _The internal split in the Sect…_

 _The recovery…_

 _My journey across the land to cut my ties…_

 _The profound darkness of the Void…_

 _A glass pagoda…_

 _Her habit of tucking her hair behind her ear, even when there wasn't a single strand out of place…_

 _A regal woman with flowing white hair…_

 _The rank red eye on her forehead…_

Drenched in cold sweat, the fourteen-year-old Lin Feng sat up in his bed with a jerk.

Dreams of a different life had been plaguing him for the last couple of years.

But the dream today had been the most vivid yet.

His breathing slowed as he tried his best to recall the details of the dream.

The fleeting images seemed to flow out of the seams of his mental grasp like water.

After a few moments, they were gone, only leaving a fuzzy feeling of incongruity behind.

Incongruity and an irrational fear of the moon.

Outside his window, the clouds parted and the light of the scarlet moon flooded the world, dyeing it in a sanguine shade.

Behind tightly closed shutters, he shivered.

…

Winter had draped a white cloak on the land and the villagers had retired to their homes early.

Lin Feng's boots left deep footprints as he trudged through the snow into the forest.

After the incident with the icy flowers, he hadn't dared to use his powers in public, but in private, he had experimented with the full range of his capabilities.

Ice bent to his will, warping along with his intent and on the days when it snowed, the world was his playground.

But, today he had come to test something that had been nagging at the back of his mind ever since he had begun to have the strange dreams.

He had dreamt of a glass pagoda. Although the images had faded with his awakening, he intuitively felt that if he tried to replicate it with his dominion over ice, he would be able to bring it out from the realm of dreams, into the world.

Maybe, if he had a locus on which to focus his thoughts, he could recall the rest of his dream.

Stopping at a secluded spot by the lake to circumvent prying eyes, Lin Feng inhaled deeply, letting the chilly evening breeze flood his lungs.

Waving his hands, the falling snowflakes in the region became static, then coalesced into a tall tower.

His fingers moved automatically as he fell deeper into a trance that elucidated the image in his mind.

Parts of the tower sloughed off as it grew tapered, various portions shaping themselves so that nine distinct layers became discernible.

The snow continued its silent symphony and Lin Feng was its conductor.

The tower shrank as the snowflakes fused together into frosted ice. The waning light of the day shone down on the emergent creation, filling the secluded clearing with rainbows…

*snap*

The sound of a breaking branch snapped Lin Feng out of his trance. The half-finished sculpture lost its support and crashed onto the ground, splintering into several pieces as he spun about towards the sound like a frightened rabbit.

His eyes locked onto his father's gaze which was filled with swirling emotions.

 _Shock, loss, betrayal, rage._

 _…_

Dragging her by her hair, Lin Feng's father threw his mother onto the snowy ground of the village square, her body landing onto the prone figure of Lin Feng.

The alarm had been raised and the crowd was gathering.

Lin Feng could hardly focus on the sounds of their discussion over the pain flooding his mind.

The fingers of his left hand were broken and his left eye swollen shut.

When his mother fell on top of him, she jarred his mangled hand and elicited a pained moan.

She cradled him protectively and screamed at the gathered villagers, appealing to their rationality.

For a moment, the crowd stilled…

Then the first stone hit her on the head, drawing blood.

His face distorted with hatred and disgust, Lin Feng's father spat out the word as if it denoted all that was vile in the world: "Witch!"

"Witch!"

"Demon!"

"Devil spawn!"

The mob worked itself into a frenzy as stone after stone hit her body.

Lin Feng, cocooned within her embrace, could feel her shudder from every impact.

"Stop." He whispered.

Tears streamed down his face as another stone hit her arm with an ominous crunch.

"Stop!" He entreated.

A drop of her blood trickled onto his face, mixing with his tears.

"STOP!" His scream lost its way in the deafening howls of the mob. She coughed up blood, splattering his face and dyeing his vision red.

 **"I SAID, STOP!"**

Silence.

His voice cracked as he looked into her lifeless eyes. "I'm sorry."

Her limp body slid off him unblocking his line of sight to the sky.

It was a full moon night.

The scarlet brilliance shone upon the scene of a circle of nearly a hundred ice sculptures, each frozen with a rictus of hatred on its face.

Some were frozen with stones, large or small, held in their fists.

*shnck*

The sound of cracking ice resounded in the silence.

The figures shattered, filling the air with a glittering cloud of ice dust as the pieces tumbled on the floor.

In the centre of the carnage, slack jawed and atheistic, lay Lin Feng.

His glazed pupils reflected the light of the scarlet moon.


	29. Chapter 28

_Inside the World of Infinite Dreams:-_

Having the 'Hero of the Sand' fighting on their side seemed a much more lucrative proposition than killing her.

That was the only reason Pakura was alive now.

That and a few of the bloodline clans wanted her to strengthen their bloodlines and their rival bloodless clans wanted her to catapult their families into the ranks of bloodline nobility.

It was a clever scheme, she mused, as she walked the streets of Kirigakure.

The Hozuki clan played the bloodline clans, who had quality shinobi under their command but suffered in terms of quantity against the populous bloodless clans, weakening both and pointedly removing their detractors during the chaos of their confrontation. A classic case of divide and conquer policy. It was no wonder that the first, second and third Mizukage all came from the Hozuki clan.

Shadows shifted at the edge of her vision. A squad of Kiri bloodhounds permanently assigned to monitor her.

She shook her head as her lip curled into a self-depreciative sneer. It's not as if she has anywhere to go.

It was time to face it, she was an abandoned child of Suna, being raised as a psychological weapon by their rival in preparation to attack the morale of their floor soldiers.

She had been dispatched on a solo recon mission and her route had been leaked to the Kiri shinobi for the price of her bounty on the Kiri bingo book.

The inevitable ambush had occurred. Sadly, no miracles were in sight and she had been smoothly apprehended and offered the choices of submission or death. She had chosen to go on living just to spite those geezers in the Suna council.

She had been kept out of the loop in the recent days and any classified knowledge she might have had was dated. Still, she had to sit and copy it out for them as per terms of her surrender. It was only now, after nearly six wrist-cramping hours of brushwork, that she was done and allowed free access to the city… well, as free as a suspicious shinobi on foreign soil could be, she supposed.

Anyway, from the grim atmosphere, it seemed that the undercurrents were surging these days. The Hozuki clan had bitten more than they could chew, apparently, and the hostilities between the two factions had spiralled out of control.

News of bloodline clans being exterminated and social propaganda aimed at inciting the superstitions of the illiterate grassroots population were in abundance in these parts.

She kept tabs on such gossip. After all, as the primogenitor of a brand-new bloodline, she was smack dab in the middle of this political vortex.

As she passed by an alley, an inexplicable force tugged at her heart. She stopped her footsteps and peered into the dank corner.

There, among the garbage lay an unconscious waif.

He was all skin and bones and even in this snowy winter, clad in the thinnest of smocks.

When her eyes fell upon his red and gold curls, lustreless after prolonged abuse, the tug in her heart intensified and she couldn't help but pick him up in a fireman's carry and use a quick shunshin to return to her apartment and begin nursing him back to health.

…

Lin Feng didn't know how long he had spent in that daze. He didn't know how he had reached the city from the village or how he was left unconscious and practically naked in the alley in his emaciated state. All he knew was he felt an inexplicable connection to the woman who had saved him.

Her hair and mannerisms reminded him of the woman in his dream.

He nearly fell off the tree he was hidden in as the headache hit him. It was a frequent occurrence. Thinking about the dream would cause an image of the moon to appear in his mind. In fact, even in his sleep or merely upon closing his eyes, his mind would drift to the scarlet orb in the sky. It would leave his mind hazy and he would forget about the dream, only to be reminded of it by Pakura's presence.

It was driving him insane.

He shook his head to clear his mind. It wasn't time to be thinking of such things, his target approached.

Being at war, Kiri had no time to coddle its new recruits, thus, fresh genin were being used to police the interior while the trained and battle-hardened ones were invested in the war.

It was a sink or swim approach, with several genin casualties at the hands of gang bosses and criminal overlords.

This was to be Lin Feng's first mission, a straightforward ambush and eliminate operation with the tracking and intelligence part already taken care of by another genin.

His powerful bloodline and the environmental advantage given the ubiquitous snow cover was in his favour and the takedown was expected to be a cinch. It was more of a first blooding to get his psychological insecurities with killing out of the way.

A man wrapped in a hooded fur coat ran along the ground at a quick, yet energy conserving trot headed for the Land of Fire border. From the intel, Lin Feng knew that he was a drug dealer on the run who had been outed by his competitor. Hard evidence of his clandestine activities had been leaked to the investigative squad and a warrant had been declared.

Even though he knew the man was guilty and deserved capital punishment and with the doubtful blood of the population of his entire village on his hands, his hands till grew clammy as his grip on the kunai tightened. After all, his memories of that particular incident were thankfully hazy.

Just as the man approached his tree, he clumsily threw the kunai at him. The tool wobbled and clattered on the ground most inexpertly. But it had done its job.

Spooked by the sudden attack, he had leapt back towards the tree opposite to it and held his back against it to prevent being sneak attacked… which was the last mistake of his life as the sap in the tree froze into an ice thorn and impaled him from the back of his head and came out of his mouth, dripping with blood.

The man twitched and spasmed for a bit before going limp like a marionette with its strings cut and hanging off the ice spike.

Lin Feng held in his nausea and got off the tree. He collected the kunai and approached the corpse. Bile pooled at the back of his throat at seeing the blank, sightless eyes.

Unable to take anymore, he emptied his stomach. After there was nothing left, he stood shakily and approached once again.

Holding the kunai to the neck of the corpse, he closed his eyes and careful to avoid the spurting blood, sawed at it until with a plop, the head came off.

Holding it gingerly by the hair, he sealed it away in a scroll as proof before trying once again to void his stomach.

…

Back at their quarters, Pakura arrived at the refrigerator, took out a bottle of sake and poured out two glasses.

She smiled comfortingly, "Drink up. It'll help."

She took up the liquor, bent her head supinely and poured it down her throat in one go.

That heroic stance could put many men to shame.

"Haah... This stuff's flavour is inferior to that of the ones from the Land of Fire but it is more potent. It can actually let you vent, generally speaking, is a good thing."

With how she usually acted around him, he sometimes forgot that she wasn't a demure lady but a fierce warrior who had walked the line between life and death for the most of her life.

Lin Feng shook his head and also took a swig fiercely.

*cough*cough*

The unexpected burn of the liquor going down his throat made him start coughing.

"Ha-ha." Pakura laughed uproariously. "Look what happens when you try to show off."

When he finally managed to settle down, his eyes had teared up from the hacking coughs.

"Water it down at first… this one is too strong for beginners."

He followed her advice and cautiously took a sip. This time, he managed to keep it down and soon the warmth from the alcohol spread in his chest, driving the guilt from his first kill to the back of his mind.

They sat in silence, drinking one glass after the other, taking advantage of anaesthesia that alcohol is in sole possession of to release the exhaustion in their hearts.

"*hic*... It is not good, I felt... How can't the bottle, bottle be opened?"

"That is not the bottle, it's a glass, idiot." Lin Feng roared, snatched the empty glass from her hand and flung it to the ground.

"You dare to snatch this *hic* young lady's liquor? You must be tired of living." Pakura stood drunkenly and cocked her head to glare at him.

The glare that would have usually frightened him silly was ignored in his inebriated state. Lin Feng too stood up staggeringly and took a step forward.

"Come… who fears whom? Idiot." He stepped onto the fallen glass and slipped and fell on to the ground distressed.

The liquor tore down the camouflage of civilization. Lin Feng's brain was devoid of thought, he only wanted to vent the despondence and negative mood in his heart.

*clink* *tink*

The empty glass rolled away as she bumped into it.

"Whom did you… you scold? *hic*..." Pakura drilled under the table, crawled on Lin Feng and smiled drunkenly. Her enticing red lips were slightly parted exhaling scalding hot liquor vapour.

Lin Feng wanted to revolt.

However, his present opponent was Pakura.

That terrifying enhanced muscular strength, suppressed him with ease.

"Get down, I must be on top." Lin Feng was whispering, as he pushed and shoved. Pakura who was riding his body was entirely still. He tried to sit up with all his strength.

"Hey hey? *hic*..." Pakura lost her balance for a moment and almost tumbled off him. Angry, she clutched the collar of his kimono and slammed his back into the ground.

She narrowed her bleary eyes into seams, "This young lady must be on top."

Pakura, who was staring at Lin Feng with a feral vision, suddenly maliciously kissed him.

"wū wū! Damn, you knocked against my tooth..." Lin Feng mumbled unclearly through the blockade of her mouth.

Two large and soft spheroids pressed on Lin Feng's chest, making him feel scant of breath. His attempts to shove them away met with failure as the soft shapes deformed within his grasp.

"..." Warm liquor vapour blew lightly on Lin Feng's face, destroying his final reason.

They were drunk.

There is a saying that alcohol is the premier catalyst of moods.

Earnestly seeking his body, she sucked Lin Feng's lower lip, her ample bosom rubbing against his chest. The close beads of perspiration covered the entirety of her fair neck, saliva outlined a silvery bright trace between their lips. Her flexible, slippery tongue pried open the Lin Feng's mandibular joint, dissolutely pestering his tongue, their four eyes relative to each other...

Their clothing, that was in the way of their intimacy, was gradually torn off and thrown in one side. The mild feeling of flesh touching flesh made Lin Feng send out a low roar of pleasure. Perhaps it was his masculine instinct, he wanted to press her beneath his body and push her to the ground, but the strength of Pakura was above him and she pressed down on his shoulder aggressively, keeping him from achieving his wishes.

Her beautiful eyes narrowed to a seam, Pakura, in the throes of her lust, put out a hand to take away the cloth belt of his waist. Straddling Lin Feng's waist, the corners of her mouth glistened with his saliva. Moistening her lips, that were dry because of the fire of her desire, by running her tongue over them, Pakura untied the knot of her skirt impatiently...

"Umm..." The ache and scalding hot feeling of invasion let her eyebrows wrinkle slightly, making her moan in pain.

The comfort that the lower part of his body transmitted made Lin Feng incapable of controlling the flame of desire that moved restlessly within his body, simultaneously, the pressure on his shoulder reduced much.

Alcohol is strange, it can dilute all rational insistence, make one cast behind all consequences and pursue the most primitive, but most wonderful joyfulness.

Erupting with a low roar at breaking through his fetters, Lin Feng did not know why she gave up resisting, nor did he care as he counter-attacked and pushed her to the ground. He held her slender and toned thigh, maintained the posture of this distortion, then...

…

In the future whenever he recalled that crazy night, it hadn't left behind too many impressions in his brain, but he vaguely remembered that the battlefield shifted to beside the refrigerator from the dinner table, from the living room to the kitchen, to the bedroom along the corridor.

On the sofa, by the stair rails, before the window, on the rug...

Everywhere had traces of their fight.

Lin Feng did not know why his battle efficiency elevated to such an altitude, moreover it was his first time, from the pale red mark, it could be seen that it was also her primary experience.

After the sound of his low roar mingled with her tender respite as they reached their respective release, the villa returned to the past tranquillity.

"... Sorry." To be honest, at some point, Lin Feng had become sober, he had discovered that Pakura was also the same. With the presence of the chakra coursing through their bodies, it was no surprise really. But seeing her unwilling to terminate this happiness, he had not chosen to stop, but had chosen continuation.

"Is this your response?" Somehow, in Pakura's heart there was no anger, but one type of relaxedness that came after laying down one's burden.

It was as if she had found a dependence? The feeling of family? The dust laden emotions from when she was still a child living with her parents? She didn't know, but whatever it was, it felt nice.

"I will be responsible." Lin Feng said somewhat stiffly as his face flushed. As it was his first time dealing with an emotional entanglement, it left him flustered.

"Titter," Pakura smiled charmingly, changing to a comfortable posture to continue to lie down in the crook of his elbow, drawing circles on his chest with her fingertip gently, "Although you are a man, but you are sometimes very cute."

"cough cough!" Lin Feng was almost choked by the Pakura words. He just wanted to rebut with sarcasm, the vision was actually drawn to her proud chest, after some time, he realized the teasing expression on her face.

"Is this young lady's chest attractive?" He blushed. 'How can a woman be so unscrupulous and have no demeanour?' He criticized in his mind. Remembering that she was orphaned young and had never been coached in etiquette, he relaxed.

"Attractive." Lin Feng swallowed his saliva and replied honestly.

"You took my maidenhood while drunk." Pakura, at this moment looked like a cat who had eaten her fill and was playing with the remaining mice, as she teased Lin Feng with a faint smile.

"Yes." Lin Feng braced himself to say.

"After you men have relations with a woman, do you become so timid?" Pakura raised her head and rested it on one arm. The enticement of this posture attacked his mind, making a part of him recover. Before this, he was unable to imagine that the barbaric woman could have such an aspect of femininity.

The contrast between the lazy attitude and her feral nature brought about an indescribable charm.

"..." Lin Feng had a feeling of being toyed with by her. A deep diluteness welled up from within him.

'Good, from the strength I truly am not her match...' Lin Feng comforted himself in the heart, after all he was ninjutsu focused and had always kept a healthy distance from taijutsu. It seemed that he would have to make persistent efforts if he wanted to regain his pride as a man.

"At this time shouldn't you say something like you will always love me, or pledge to protect me for a lifetime? In the romance novels isn't that how it usually goes?"

"... I am unable to make such a commitment, realistically speaking, it's more likely that you'll be the one doing the protecting," staying silent for a moment, Lin Feng sighed with a solemn expression and said sincerely, "but, I can pledge that I will cherish you for a lifetime, if you are willing to be my woman."

"..." Pakura looked at the sincerity on his face and her eyes slowly misted up.

How long... She had roamed about all alone in this world of blood and violence.

Struggling to crawl out of the shadow left by the death of her parents at her own hands. Fighting to protect a village whose people feared her. Avoiding the pursue of suitors who saw her only as a tool to improve their bloodlines. Death was her final home to return to.

However, now someone was willing to become her dependence...

"*Titter*, this young lady is very difficult to raise." The countless words, only changed to a chuckle with teasing finally. Regarding such a future, Pakura was very confused, because from the moment her parents died, it had been instilled into her that she didn't deserve happiness. Only by serving the village could she redeem her sins. That's what she lived by… till the village abandoned her.

"I'll manage."

"... I, have been rejected by my village." A flurried expression flashed on her face.

"I do not care."

"I, I have the blood of my parents on my hands." The Pakura expression was shivering slightly, the imposing manner of Lin Feng as he pressed on step by step made her suddenly feel cornered.

"I know, it wasn't your fault."

"..." A short silence descended between the two people, only leaving the weak sounds of their respite.

Lin Feng felt that his throat was somewhat dry, he had inexplicable feelings towards the present woman. Although rationality told him that it might just be gratitude towards her for taking him off the streets, that two months were too short a time for love...

However, rationality be damned!

Lin Feng had no regrets as he calmly waited for the reply of Pakura.

"... What are you waiting for? My man." Pakura smiled suddenly, that charm, making him lose the power of thought.

Seeing him stare at her dumbly, Pakura smiled angrily, but soon gave up on her anticipation and pasted her lip close to his ear.

"Fuck me." The slightly hot air current blew off Lin Feng's rationality once more.

With a carnal roar and a sensuous moan, a new fight started...


	30. Chapter 29

Isolated from the angry red moonlight by the firmly closed shutters of their bedroom window, two forms pestered together, grunting and moaning in a symphony of passion.

Finally, reaching her climax, the female form arched her back as her toes curled and her nails raked furrows into the back of the male who, stimulated by the convulsion of her insides, was brought over the brink. With a primal roar, he released his lust into her womb.

Time seemed to still at that moment, framing them in the posture of their release. Colour drained out of them and their surroundings. The achromatic field expanded rapidly, until it encompassed the whole of Kirigakure, stopping its progress, only when met by the dense wall of fog at the borders of the Water country.

A tiny flicker of lavender flame spouted up from the joined bodies of Lin Feng and Pakura, slowly spreading over them and onto the ground.

Slowly at first, then faster and faster, wisps of flame in all sorts of hues and shades originated from their bodies and started spreading outwards.

The strange thing was that they did not burn any of the achromatic objects or beings that were frozen in time, just blanketed them in a layer of multicoloured flame.

Thus, the World of Infinite Dreams was parted into two. One side occupied by the colourful flames and the other dominated by the sanguine light of the moon. After a brief moment of deadlock, with the sound of shattering glass, the world ruptured, giving way to the infinite white plane that was Lin Feng's mindscape.

The multicoloured flames retracted back into their static bodies and colour and movement returned to them.

Destabilized by the sudden disappearance of the bed, they slammed onto the hard ground in a tangle of limbs.

Lin Feng and Pakura's eyes widened as their memory came flowing back into them, hitting them like a ton of bricks with its abruptness.

For a brief moment, they maintained their position in a daze before with an embarrassed scream, Pakura jumped away from him and conjured up some clothes with a thought.

Lin Feng too stood up and clothed himself before turning to the perpetrator.

Kaguya was on her knees, gasping for breath with both hands supporting her weight as a stream of blood trickled down her forehead from the rank red vertical third eye which was slowly closing.

After it shut fully, she staggered up and regarded the two of them with shock in her white eyes.

As quickly as it came, the shock faded, replaced by indifference as she ran the voluminous sleeve of her pristine white kimono over her face and the blood vanished, leaving her as devastatingly beautiful as ever, marred only slightly by the newly formed crow's feet at the corners of her eyes.

It seemed that creating the illusory world had taken a toll on her.

Pakura immediately took a combat stance and conjured up her metallic hand fans, preparing to attack but Lin Feng laid a hand on her shoulder, holding her back. She took a step back, blushing as she registered the physical contact.

His face was dignified and his nerve taut as his soul shivered under the unique soul pressure emitted by Kaguya indicative off her outclassing him by far in soul cultivation. Pakura, being an astral projection generated using their karmic bond, was unable to feel it, so she looked at him confused. He shook his head, indicating that making a move would be unwise.

The three of them stood there, in a silent deadlock before Kaguya sighed and turned away, walking to a distant place.

Her melodious voice drifted to them from her receding back: "Come."

Lin Feng and Pakura looked at each other questioningly before Lin Feng shrugged and decided to follow.

As they caught up to her, they saw her walking into a small wooden hut. It had sliding doors made of a wooden lattice covered in a translucent paper.

Sliding them apart, Lin Feng walked in followed by Pakura. Before she could step in, however, Kaguya turned her head from where she was fiddling with various implements on the other side of the room and shot her an indifferent glance before coldly stating: "Kindly take off your footwear." She turned around without even bothering to check whether her instructions were followed as if confident that they wouldn't dare to disregard her word.

Lin Feng, having picked up the habit of being barefoot from the Monks of Kunlun at a young age didn't have to do anything but Pakura frowned at her imperious attitude for a bit before complying and making her footwear vanish.

They entered the room and took in the appearance.

It was a standard chashitsu, a traditional tea room. It was four and a half tatami mats in size, one wall had an alcove with a calligraphy scroll containing the word 'negotiation' in bold brushwork, while a short-legged table occupied the centre of the room and the wall opposite to the entrance had a set-up for brewing tea, replete with all sorts of ornate implements where Kaguya was currently busying herself with her back to them. A potted bonsai completed the décor of the room which only had the colours beige and brown, lending it an elegant atmosphere.

Lin Feng and Pakura took their seats in a seiza on the two cushions provided for them in front of the table.

They waited in silence as they watched one of the most powerful beings in the world prepare tea.

It was almost like watching a slow dance, the implements and ingredients placed in precisely measured distances which would make the act of reaching for them look artistic.

Her wide sleeves added to the visual appeal of the performance, for a performance it was, swaying in delayed arcs as she mixed the herbs and put them in the teapot to boil.

Even something as simple as boiling water had been refined into an art as the bubbling and frothing resonated against the specially shaped teapot, making music as it reached the right temperature.

With a hand on the handle and the other pressing three fingers on the lid, she tilted the teapot to pour the tea into three prepared cups in a manner which allowed the steam to curl around her body, making her figure seem mystical.

Replacing the teapot on the fire to simmer, she brought the plate with the cups to the table by shuffling to the table using only her knees and toes so it seemed like she was gliding over the floor.

Placing the plate on the table, she offered Lin Feng a cup.

He accepted it with both hands and…

Tossed its contents into the bonsai.

A depressing silence permeated the room as atmosphere grew constrained.

Lin Feng confidently met Kaguya's emotionless gaze.

*sizzle**sizzle*

He turned to the source of the sound and had a scare.

The bonsai had turned into a blackened stick.

"Good. At least you learn fast. I, Kaguya Otsutsuki, refuse to negotiate with a simpleton."

Lin Feng's eyes twitched as he tried to regulate his racing heart.

'Your nine generations are simpletons', he couldn't help but obloquy at heart.

From the tea room and the calligraphy, he had guessed that she was not at her full power and incapable of destroying or controlling him for some reason. Thus, the need to come to an agreement.

Making the tea was a ploy to draw him into her pace and dictate the terms of the negotiation.

His tossing the tea was to disrupt her pace and regain the initiative.

Who knew she had actually poisoned it. First the incense and now tea.

He decided then and there, that in the privacy of his mind, she was forever going to go by the title 'Crazy Poison Lady'.

Suddenly, her expression grew melancholy, "I lived in a ghetto in a war-torn world when I was but a mortal child. The leader of our little band of misfits was a strapping young man that found us a crevice in which to survive between the powerful cultivator gangs and the drug lords…"

Her tone became wistful, "He was my first love. But it wasn't fated to be. I was but a shy maiden who covered her face with her bangs and could never work up the courage to approach him while my rival was a harlot who bared her bottom and jiggled her breasts at every unmarried male of age in our camp. I could only watch as he showered her with attention in the hopes of getting into her bed and she strung him along..."

Her tone grew cold, "Just like the other animals in camp. Oh… I hated her so. I wanted her to…"

She tossed the contents of the other two cups onto the bonsai.

"burn."

The remaining charred husk, dissolved and even the soil underneath began to bubble and steam. With a wave of her sleeve, the empty cups, the plate and the remnants of the bonsai were gone.

She sighed and turned back and shuffled her way to the simmering teapot.

Pouring out another three cups, she continued, "But let young love simmer for a while till it becomes naught but a memory…"

She brought the cups to the table and placed one each in front of Lin Feng and Pakura.

"Then it becomes…"

She took up one herself, raised it to her lips with both hands and took a sip.

"bittersweet."

Her gaze grew defocused as if she was recalling something. The charm she unconsciously sent out caused Lin Feng's gaze to be riveted to her profile.

Pakura bit her lip in resentment and pinched his waist, snapping him out of his daze. He awkwardly ran a hand through his messy hair and looked away.

Kaguya soon recovered and showed a faint smile at them.

"Please, sample my handiwork. It's been a thousand years since I last made it for someone. My skills might have rusted."

She raised her right hand, palm facing forwards.

"And if you are worried about toxins in the tea… rest assured. I do so swear upon my Dao."

An intangible ripple spread out from her and caused a resonance between it and the karmic bond. Both Lin Feng and Pakura were suddenly sure that the words she spoke were true.

Kaguya lowered her hand and smiled faintly, "That was a soul oath. Only applicable to people above Grasping Principles realm. It is quite inviolable… unless your Dao is about deceit. My Dao, as you probably already know, is the Grand Dao of Samsara Reincarnation, so no need for apprehension."

Lin Feng and Pakura looked at each other, then nodded to her and took up their cups to take a sip.

Lin Feng's eyes grew unfocused as he recalled the feeling of finally leaving the Kunlun Mountains after completing his assignment. He was elated with success but unwilling to part from his friends there.

Pakura remembered the feeling of being hailed as the Hero of the Sand as she stood over the body of her dead comrade.

It was in a word, bittersweet.

Lin Feng was amazed by the skill in soul cultivation displayed by Kaguya. To manifest emotions as true substances capable of affecting other souls was in the legendary realm of Creation of All Things. If they fought, they didn't stand a chance. He was all the more curious about why they were even negotiating.

Kaguya took another sip from her cup and spoke, "My soul is stronger than you but due to some circumstances, I am currently unable to use my Dao or my principles. Thus, though I can torture you through my illusions, I am incapable of truly harming you as long as you are under the aegis of that principle which connects you. As you probably already noted, my illusions drain me and your wills are tenacious enough to withstand the time period of torture I can deal out before I myself am exhausted."

Turning to Lin Feng, she said, "Your mortal body is in my hands but killing you would only set you free. Due to the peculiarity of tailed-beasts and your assimilation of them you are aloof from the cycle of reincarnation otherwise, in the Ghostdom, I may have been able to deal with you.

"We are cultivators and if you come from the same type of world that I do, you would know that means that we have few friends; if we are clever about it, fewer enemies and everyone else on the road is a rival. I am sure that if you found me at your mercy, you would try to strip my Dao from me and take it as your own.

"Since a peculiar set of circumstances have brought us to the negotiation table, we should put down our hatred and begin anew. To facilitate this, I will allow you two questions which I will answer truthfully, I do so swear upon my Dao. Choose carefully what you ask, for I may refuse to answer."

Another ripple of power spread out, denoting the engagement of the soul oath. Lin Feng decided to start simple to test the waters.

"What about the poison you used during the incense game?"

Kaguya's eyes narrowed mischievously as she covered her mouth with a sleeve and chuckled demurely, "Fu fu fu. I knew you would ask that, boy. Did it hurt your pride being bested by a woman?

"It was a combination poison. Each incense had to be taken in a certain order for the entire thing to take effect. If even a step was missing or in an incorrect order, the chemicals would become harmless. As I was the host and with the other players under my control, I was able to manipulate the flow of the game till you inhaled the last incense that set off a chain reaction in your body.

"It works by accelerating the production of white blood cells targeted at the important organs of your body, so despite your inhuman healing, it doesn't apply as the body doesn't recognise it as an illness. Basically, your body eats itself up from the inside.

"I do so love the fun little games my children here have thought up. They are so intricate and amusing."

"And you add poison to everything." Lin Feng muttered under his breath.

"Fu fu fu. Why, yes. Poison makes everything so much more exciting doesn't it?"

Lin Feng shuddered at her overly sweet tone. She was switching personalities faster than one flipped a book. This was confusing him, which… was probably the point. She wanted to keep him off guard so he made some mistake during the negotiations and seeing that the whole thing involved soul oaths, one mistake could be fatal.

This was another way of fighting, with a dagger in every smile and toxin in each word. He frowned. He had one last free question to probe her depth. He needed to make it count.

He couldn't ask anything too significant as she would refuse to answer and void her oath while something too inconsequential wasn't going to help him.

He turned to Pakura. While he was an experienced hand at mercantile negotiations, this situation was more of a criminal psychologist's area of expertise.

She nodded at him in acknowledgement and asked, "Why do you have such enormous repercussions for using your soul?"

She looked mildly surprised for a moment before turning cheerful again, "Oh… what a clever question. I thought for sure you would ask me about the seal on my Dao… should I answer you? I should, shouldn't I, if we are to establish trust? Hmm… but it might give you a handle to exploit.

"Oh well… the thing is my soul is too powerful for my mortal body as the seal on my Dao makes it so that if I so much as even cultivate chakra, I will be reincarnated into another baby on this world. Thus, I can't strengthen my body and using my soul strains it enough to age it by a considerable amount per use… use too much and I will die and get reincarnated."

Pakura nodded in understanding. "That's why you have been using poisons. Without them he could kill you before you could even cast your illusions."

She smiled, "True. A woman has to have something to protect herself in this big bad world that we live in. Right?"

Pakura could only nod helplessly. When a thousand-year-old woman acted like a young girl, it truly was a psychological attack.

Suddenly, her face became dignified. She said, "I need you to - "

"We swear upon our bond that we will help you however you require us to, given that we get to keep the nine tailed beasts and you fully disclose your circumstance." Lin Feng interrupted her.

Her pearlescent eyes flashed with anger. A huge pressure rippled out from her and oppressed Lin Feng, causing him to shiver as he gritted his teeth and tried to continue his speech.

Although Pakura couldn't feel the pressure, she could see its effects on him and she tried to move into a combat ready position but Lin Feng grabbed her hand and prevented her.

"After… the full… disclosure… hah… we reserve the right to demand two more conditions as recompense… open to negotiation." He raised his right hand which was holding onto Pakura's left.

A ripple of energy spread out from their joined hands and the pressure melted away like fog beneath the sun.

Lin Feng gasped for breath as Pakura held him up to prevent him from collapsing.

Kaguya sighed, "Also good. I was hoping to trip you up in the word games… It's the first time in a thousand years that I have someone of equal standing to talk to and test my wits against… I was enjoying myself quite a lot but it seems that you are impatient to get to the negotiations."

She sipped her tea again and closed her eyes as if she was reorganizing her words.

Opening her eyes, she spoke, "Like all stories, mine has a beginning, middle and end. In my experience; I have found the beginning as good a place to start as any."


	31. Chapter 30

"In the lives of we cultivators, there is always one mortal reincarnation that defines us. In my case, it was my life as a girl in a ghetto in the most lawless part of the entire plane, I'm sure.

"The leader of the city was an important Devil path figure. The reason he was important was his research on hallucinogenic drugs. He grew acres of a plant he called Weed and used their extract to concoct a mixture which when injected, inhaled or smoked could improve soul cultivation.

"It was even good for breakthroughs to the next realm of the path of Heavenly Communion.

"The problem was that it was highly addictive and the withdrawal symptoms were horrific.

"I grew up watching promising young men and women become slaves to its charm. They came for a quick breakthrough, they returned with a broken life.

"When he passed away, his son took over.

"I was an introverted little girl and the only one who took the time to try and get to know me well enough to get past my shell was an older girl who had been put in charge of the children in our camp.

"Over the years our friendship only grew deeper and she was like an elder sister to me. One day, I started to notice differences in her behaviour. The usually cheerful girl was subdued and irritable and she had dark pouches under her eyes.

"I felt that something was wrong with her and confronted her about it only for my concern to be brushed away.

"It was only later that week that I learnt that she had been fuelling her drug addiction by selling herself. When I walked into her tent, I found that my elder sister was all but dead in name, replaced by a husk of herself.

"She soon passed away and at her funeral, I decided to take revenge for her passing: I decided to burn the fields of Weed to the ground.

"I sneaked a laxative in the food of one of the members of the camp who worked at the fields as a guard. That night I snuck into the fields from his vacant post and poured out a bottle of oil and lit it with a flint.

"To increase yields, they had spaced the crops close together and this helped them burn much faster. Even though I tried to run away, I was caught. I don't want to talk about the next few days. Suffice it to say… it took a long time for me to die.

"After I passed on to the Ghostdom, the Fire of Karma began burning me… apparently, my burning of the entire field of Weed had left the addicts without a fix and they had cursed me for it, resulting me having accumulated a huge amount of resentment.

"Thankfully, my Light of Karmic virtue accumulated over my past lives was enough and I survived the ordeal intact but drained of Karmic Virtue.

"So, I went to work under the asylum of the nearest Tutelary God to earn some Karmic Virtue by slaying monsters for him.

"When I reached there I was shocked to see the deceased Devil Cultivator, the original perpetrator of the Weed farm, was the God of the shrine. Apparently, the addicts in their hallucinogenic haze never thought to blame the source of the drug.

"There he was a beast in human clothing laughing and talking with the ghosts who had taken asylum under him acting like a saint. That day, I lost all my faith in Karma.

"An idea began to form in my mind about a reincarnation system that would provide a body corresponding to the nature of the soul so everyone could associate an ugly exterior with an ugly soul. Then pretenders like him couldn't get away scot free like he did. Thus, the seed of the idea of Samsara Reincarnation germinated in my mind.

"The next few reincarnation cycles for me were quite lucky and I was able to earn a lot of Karmic Virtue. So, I invested it all for the final reincarnation.

"There are three ways to spend Karmic Virtue: Firstly, reincarnation itself uses up some. Then, one can choose to spend more to have the current reincarnation remember something from its past lives. The more the memories, the greater the cost. I chose to keep my memory of my time as the girl. Finally, by spending Karmic Virtue, one can improve the circumstances of birth.

"I was born as the daughter of the head of a sect and had enough talent and resources to cultivate to the Shattered Void realm.

"The first world I ended up in after my ascension was a low-level plane with a generic system of sects and kingdoms. I spent my time in this plane learning to wield all kinds of weapons from halberds to gauntlets along with unarmed combat.

"By the time I had reached mastery in all known forms of combat, I had reached the peak of the Shattered Void realm. Fully equipped, I set out on my path of the Asura.

"I stabbed people with my knife until it was too dull to be used. I hacked at people with my axe till its haft shattered against my opponent's weapon. I wielded my halberd, leaving great swathes of carnage, until it snapped in two trying to cut through full plate. I killed till blood was all I could see. Then, when I ran out of weapons, I used my fists.

"Finally, atop a hill of corpses, I knew what an Asura was. I stepped into Grasping Principles realm bathed in the blood of millions.

"The next plane I ended up in didn't have humans, only beasts. After I condensed the principle of the Asura path, I realised that I had a talent in splitting my soul. I split mine into two, fusing one part with the principle, leaving it in charge of my body, while the other part tapped into the cycle of reincarnation and experienced the livelihood of the beasts from their perspective in the course of multiple reincarnations.

"It took me a hundred years to finally condense the principle of the Beast path, which I fused with another portion of my soul, forming the Beast path soul clone.

"The next plane I visited was another generic cultivator plane and there, I set about collecting soul cultivation sutras and trying to comprehend the principle governing souls. After all, my goal was to create my own form of reincarnation cycle.

"While I did this, my Asura path and Beast path soul clones went into the cycle of reincarnation and indulged in all sorts of vice like alcohol, drugs, lust in all its forms from the perspective of both genders, overeating and so on.

"I discovered that my talent in splitting souls came from my affinity to the principle governing souls and it was quite easy for me to condense it.

"By the end of my stay, I had congealed the principle of the Preta path, which governed an overindulgence of desires and fused it with another soul fragment. I found that the more principles I had, the easier it was to condense principles that had the same theme.

"The next world I visited was a scientific civilization which was reaching its decline having used up all its resources. It was the third planet in a solar system with a red giant star.

"It was a cesspool of drugs, corruption and slavery. I posed as a deity descended to save them and started a religion in my name while bringing salvation to as many as I could with my strength.

"By the time I was done, I managed to condense the principle of the Deva path and its associated clone. I also improved my Asura path by integrating the mastery of scientific weapons.

"Landing in another low-level cultivator plane, I sent my soul clones into the Ghostdom to study its workings. After a few tries, I got them to become Tutelary Gods by having them reincarnate into the bodies of future clan heads and after death, having the members of the clan consecrate them.

"Using this experience and a thorough understanding of the Ghostdom, I condensed the principle of the Naraka path.

"By this time, I had five out of the six paths as soul clones fused with the principle. As I pondered over them, I was struck with the epiphany that each of the paths depicted a human excess. Excess violence for the Asura path, excess compassion for the Deva Path, excess indulgence for the Preta path and so on.

"Thus, the Human path referred to a principle which had all these traits in moderation. Thus, I condensed my final principle. Leaving me with six concurrent souls.

"By this time, I was already a thousand years old and nearing the end of my lifespan. Thus, I decided to try and condense the life principle. Having no ideas on how to go about it, I decided to try and condense its reverse. The principle of Death.

"Reaching a scientific world, I used my soul principle to release tiny clumps of soul mass all over the planet with instructions to attach to sentient beings and started meditating on the feedback from them.

"They were programmed to return to me at the point of their host's death with the last few minutes of experience.

"In the time I spent there, I experienced all types of death starting from natural senescence to heart attacks, diseases, murders, suicide, the list went on.

"By the time I finally condensed the principle, I was mildly insane from too much death and needed to relax and just live.

"So, I scouted out a planet in the cosmos with only primitive tribes on it and began to live a simple life in isolation, experiencing the beauties of nature.

"Over time, I began to notice the changes, my appearance was restoring to my past youthfulness and flowers and plants bloomed wherever I went.

"Unknowingly, I had condensed the life principle just living my life to the fullest.

"By this time, I was already famous among the tribes as the Mother Goddess and they worshipped me along with the Heavens. I liked it there and I guided their civilization until they overspread the planet.

"The planet was slowly condensing its own Will due to the consistent prayer. Due to my status as the Mother Goddess and my Deva path principle, the Will acknowledged me as its mother and I decided to remain there and establish my new reincarnation cycle on this planet and in the process, condense all nine of my principles into a Divine Dao.

"Over time, the world vitality concentration increased and one after another, several people broke through to the Shattered Void realm, donating their nascent Void Force. My child started absorbing its own Void Force and started evolving into a plane.

"By closely following the entire evolution process, my outline for my own reincarnation system was almost complete and only a spark of inspiration was required to condense all nine of the principles into a Grand Dao.

"At this critical juncture, the Otsutsuki clan found me. They are an agglomeration of Dao Seeking cultivators who call themselves a clan because of their use of a strange body modification that can help them sense principles better. It has the side effect of making them grow horns on their head.

"The ones who came were two Dao Seeking experts and I hadn't even condensed my Dao at that time. My comprehension of nine principles made me capable of holding both of them off while coordinating with my child, due to their Daos only being mortal tier Daos with four and five principles respectively.

"While we fought, another expert from the Otsutsuki clan, one with a Divine Dao with seven principles arrived and subdued me.

"Divine Daos are called as such because only experts with a Divine Dao with seven, eight or nine constituent principles are strong enough to allow their possessor step into the next realm of Demiurge.

"The Otsutsuki expert wanted to assimilate my child and use the boost that would give him to step into the next realm. My child was on the cusp of becoming a plane and thus, was strong enough to resist his attack, though it was falling leeward.

"Finally, he stepped into the realm of Demiurge by devouring my child right in front of me by planting a parasitic tree that absorbed the entirety of its strength. All the while bragging to me about how he had obtained it from a plane containing a race called elves who worshipped it and called it by many names such as Shinju or Yggdrasil meaning Divine tree.

"He spoke of how he had massacred all its protectors and taken the seed.

"He coveted my beauty and talent so he made me choose between swearing a soul oath of servitude and annihilation.

"I wanted revenge for my child and I hadn't yet created my reincarnation system and validated my Dao. I had a lot to live for… so I swore a soul oath… but using my soul principle to camouflage my deceit, I only swore using my Human path principle… the principle I needed the least effort to condense again.

"Oh you don't have to worry. I have condensed my Dao now so unless I want to discard it, I can't break the soul oath with you. You can't swear on individual principles after they condense a Dao.

"Thus, when he relaxed his vigilance, I detonated my Human path soul and escaped in the ensuing confusion. On the way, I managed to grab the seed of the Shinju.

"I was seriously injured at that time and I lost consciousness. When I awoke, I was on this world.


	32. Chapter 31

"When I woke up, I found myself cocooned within the branches of a gigantic tree. I realised that it was the Shinju. I could feel a small consciousness inside it that felt very familiar to me, probably a residual part of my child's consciousness.

"I inspected myself and found that I was not only fine, but my Dao had condensed. Broken then stands is this meaning.

"When I paid attention to the outside, I found that the Shinju had been surrounded by several armies. By sneaking out and scouring the souls of a few soldiers, I learnt that I along with the Shinju had arrived in the form of a meteor.

"It had crashed into the ground and immediately started sprouting into a tree by absorbing the world vitality attracting everyone's attention.

"The political power system of this world was straight out of a biology textbook from one of the scientific worlds I had been to. There was the Mammalia empire led by Leo kingdom, Elephas kingdom etc. Then there was the Reptilia empire led by Ophidia kingdom… It was like the animal kingdom with each kingdom consecrating a divine beast known as the totem beast of the kingdom.

"There were insects, frogs, the whole gamut. So, I got an idea as to how I could take over the world so I could quickly become a Demiurge and get my revenge.

"I went around the entire plane using my Dao and the principle of the beast path and reincarnated all the nobility into their respective totem creatures. That's how you have the summon creatures today.

"The thing is for a plane with a population of billions, you get around 100 Shattered void cultivators per millennium. And low-level planes aren't that exclusive.

"Say, low level plane = caterpillar

"Mid level plane = cocoon

"High level plane = butterfly

"The mid level planes are at a metamorphosis state and can't tolerate anyone at the Shattered Void state and above so they kick them out.

"Low level planes are relaxed about it and so in the world there were several Shattered Void level people who came to fight me… and were turned into animals.

"But what was more interesting was that they had used their void force to create independent spaces above the nation capitals and had made a link with all of them creating a space network.

"Have you ever wondered how shunshin or the substitution jutsu works without void force? They use these space networks to teleport or replace themselves. Storage scrolls also tap into these independent spaces. Summoning jutsu also uses this. There is a boy called Minato and his teleportation jutsu also uses the space network to jump to the end point.

"So, I put the newly furry and scaly leaders into these space independents and henceforth they became summoning clans and I sent my beast path soul clone into the Ghostdom to manage the reincarnation of these beasts.

"Without a leader, everything became chaotic and banditry and unrest was rife. Now was the time for a god to appear. I sent my Deva path clone and took over the body of a girl named Kaguya from the Uzumaki clan. I had her reincarnate in a nice place so don't worry about her.

"Then I pretended to enter the zone of the Shinju and came out saying I had eaten the fruit of the Shinju and had become godly. As we all know there was no fruit.

"So, I became a sort of spiritual prop in a time when world vitality was becoming thinner and thinner due to the Shinju absorbing it. What every god needs is a villain to offset her… so I had my Naraka path pretend to be a Shinigami god called Jashin.

"It created a dark cult which killed people and sacrificed their souls to Jashin, its symbol was a circle with a triangle inside.

"Both of our followers gained in power from us and we started a holy war, thereby increasing followers that prayed to us.

"During this time there was an interlude, I got drunk once along with the captain of my guardian squad and we had sex. The next morning, I woke up to find his disembowelled body by my bed along with a neat apology letter saying that he was honour bound to commit suicide after blaspheming the goddess. Idiot. If he had just waited for the morning I could have told him I was pregnant with twins… life principle, remember? I can tell.

"I suppressed my power to be drunk last night and woke late so his soul was already gone… he had killed a lot of the Jashin cultists and their resentment to him was deep so he'd probably been burnt by the fire of karma… once again, I hate karma.

"Anyway, a year later Hagoromo and Hamura were born. Hagoromo got the fragmentary Dao of Samsara with only six of the principles, his eye was the rinnegan meaning samsara eye while Hamura got the rest in the Dao of Reincarnation with soul, life and death. His eye, the Tenseigan meant reincarnation eye.

"As the fight went on, fewer and fewer people prayed to the heavens due to the lack of world vitality, which was absorbed by the Shinju.

"The Will of the world felt the crisis and decided to cross the Rubicon by jumping into the Shinju and trying to take it over. It became the ten tails.

"The consciousness of my child was still in it and it pestered with the Will and made the ten tails become a mindless beast. I easily slapped it around in its dumb state and then sealed it within me.

"So finally, everything was free for me to control. I sent Jashin/Shinigami/Naraka path soul clone to the Ghostdom and started modifying the humans here to reduce their sensitivity to world vitality.

"As Jashin disappeared, his followers became scarce and there was peace for a time. I watched my boys grow up. Hagoromo liked being preachy and taught everyone how to use chakra. He had two kids called Indra and Ashura. Ashura got the life principle while Indra got the sharingan a combination of death, soul and Asura path principles.

"Because of the asura path, it could copy techniques and give precognition… made him good at fighting. Soul was for the illusions. Death was basically for power ups into OP mangekyo versions when a loved one died.

"Hamura was really profligate and soon lots of little white eyed monsters were running around tugging at my skirt… the byakugan was interesting in that it contained the life, soul and Human path principles. Life and soul gave the ability to see chakra and the human path gave the presence sensation across obstacles.

"With Jashin out of the picture, a lot of people started to relax and some started to pray to the Heavens as they used to… this was a disaster. It strengthened Will of the world and it started taking over my body.

"The consciousness of the Shinju, my child, tried to stop it but failed. So, my child could only manipulate its goal from destroying her to absorbing all the chakra in the world. Which was quite a silly goal for an energy producing monster.

"Anyway, the rampage started.

"Hagoromo and Hamura my brave sweethearts did something incredibly heroic and equally foolish.

"Hagoromo used 90% of his soul to seal off my Dao's connection to me then he ripped the trifecta of my, shinju's and the Will's soul out of my body and sealed it in him. Hamura sealed the ten tails' body into the moon created by them with 90% of _his_ soul.

"So, both my sons had only a few years to live and I was sealed inside Hagoromo. One day, both of them got together and used their incomplete soul principle to try and separate out the ten tails into 9 parts… the tailed beasts.

"I took the opportunity to escape, the Shinju's consciousness became black Zetsu and it also escaped.


	33. announcement

fiction/18797/narutoverse-cultivation-style

at royalroadl

royalroadl /fiction/18797/narutoverse-cultivation-style

That's where the latest chapters are... I won't be uploading here anymore...

There are some chapters added btween 14-15 and 23-24.

So, check them out too... they deal with some romance and foreshadowing elements...


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